Scores of Norwegians thought they had become millionaires after receiving a notification from the state-owned gambling company saying they had won eye-watering sums – until it turned out it was a mistake.
“Several thousand” people who won prizes in the Eurojackpot were notified of incorrect amounts on Friday, Norsk Tipping said. The company declined to confirm the exact number of those impacted to the BBC.
Norsk Tipping CEO Tonje Sagstuen apologised and resigned a day later.
An error in the conversion from Eurocents to Norwegian kroner caused the prize amounts to be “excessively high”, the company said. The amount was multiplied by 100, instead of being divided by 100, local media reported.
Norsk Tipping receives the prize amounts from Germany in euros, and then converts them to Norwegian kroner.
The correct amounts were updated on Saturday evening. No incorrect pay-outs were made, the gambling company said.
“I am terribly sorry that we have disappointed so many, and I understand that people are angry with us,” Ms Sagstuen said in a statement, adding that “criticism is justified” given the “breach of trust”.
She said she had received several messages from people who were planning to go on holiday, renovate their homes or buy an apartment.
“To them I can only say: Sorry! But I understand that it is a small consolation,” she said.
One woman, in the middle of a renovation project, told Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) she received a notification that she had won 1.2 million kroner ($119,000: £87,000). Instead, she had actually won 110 kroner ($10: £8).
The Norsk Tipping board met with the Ministry of Culture, which administers the running of the company, for an emergency meeting on Saturday.
After the meeting, Ms Sagstuen stepped down from her role as CEO. She held the position since September 2023 and had worked at Norsk Tipping since 2014.
“Here, things have failed in several places, this is my responsibility,” she said.
She said she was “sad” to leave but confident in the “improvement processes” that have been put in place.
Minister of Culture and Equality Lubna Jaffery told NRK that “such mistakes should not happen”, especially as Norsk Tipping has the exclusive right to deliver gaming services in the country.
“We expect the board to work actively to improve the control routines,” she said.
This is not the first time Norsk Tipping has found itself under criticism.
The company said that “several serious errors have been uncovered” in recent months and it had “experienced a number of technical problems in the past year”.
It acknowledged it had been “heavily criticised” by the regulator and its customers, and the criticism “was justified”.
