Lottery company sent inaccurate notifications of massive winnings to ‘thousands’

An error at Norway’s state-owned Norsk Tipping caused some people in the Scandinavian country to believe they had scored bigger lottery prizes. 

However, the information was wrong. 

Norsk Tipping put out push notifications with inaccurate prize figures for Friday’s drawing of the Eurojackpot after a “calculation error when converting from euro cents to Norwegian kroner,” according to a translated version of a Monday press release from the company. 

The prize amounts should have been divided by 100 in the currency conversion, but a “manual” error caused them to be multiplied by that figure, the company said. 

Because of the error, “thousands” of Eurojackpot lottery players in Norway were inaccurately informed of “excessively high prizes” via the push alerts, according to a translated version of an earlier release from Norsk Tipping.  

The company said it took the erroneous figures for prizes off its platforms on Friday evening after the issue was discovered, replacing them with accurate ones the following night, the press release indicated.

The error left many players disappointed. Still, Norsk Tipping said it did not lead to any individuals receiving incorrect windfalls from the Eurojackpot drawing.

Friday’s drawing for Eurojackpot, a lottery game available in a slew of European countries, did not yield a winner for its top prize. However, many players across Europe landed smaller payouts ranging from €10.70 to over €616,700, according to its website.  

“We are terribly sorry that we have disappointed so many people, and completely understand that people are angry with us,” Norsk Tipping said in a statement to FOX Business. “We have received many messages from people who had already made plans for vacations, buying apartments, or renovations before they realized the amount was incorrect. To them, we can only repeat our strongest apologies – although we understand that it does not offer much consolation.” 

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The company, which saw CEO Tonje Sagstuen step down and Vegar Strand appointed on Monday, also said it was “taking every measure possible” to keep something like this from occurring again in the future.

Friday’s error was the “latest in a series of technical issues” that Norsk Tipping has contended within the past year, the company said in a press release. It had been working to improve service to its customers with Sagstuen at the helm. 

Sagstuen said in a statement she was “confident that the improvement processes we have started are in capable hands with the current team.” 

Eurojackpot is one of the many games that Norsk Tipping facilitates for Norwegian residents. 

The state-owned company distributed over 5 million Eurojackpot prize payments last year, with 124 people in Norway becoming millionaires because of them, according to the company.