Facepalm: A wave of euphoria swept across Norway last Friday night as tens of thousands of lottery players logged into their Norsk Tipping accounts and saw what appeared to be life-changing Eurojackpot winnings. For a brief moment, dreams of new homes, exotic vacations, and financial freedom felt within reach. But by Saturday morning, those dreams had vanished – replaced by confusion, disappointment, and a public apology from Norway's state-owned lottery operator.
The incident stemmed from a manual coding error during the conversion of lottery winnings from euros to Norwegian kroner. Norsk Tipping, which administers Eurojackpot in Norway, receives the official results from Germany in eurocents. The company's system is supposed to convert these amounts into kroner by dividing by 100. However, a mistake in the code caused the amounts to be multiplied by 100 instead, inflating the displayed winnings by a factor of 10,000. For example, a €10 prize – 1,000 eurocents – was displayed as if it were €100,000, making modest wins appear like life-changing fortunes.
The error was quickly noticed. On Friday evening, thousands of players received SMS and push notifications alerting them to their supposed jackpots, and many rushed to make plans for how they would spend their newfound wealth. Some even began arranging holidays, home purchases, or renovations before the mistake was corrected.
Norsk Tipping acted overnight to remove the erroneous figures from its website and app, and by early Saturday morning, the correct prize amounts had been restored. The company emphasized that no incorrect payouts were made, and the inflated sums only appeared in notifications and online accounts.
Despite the swift correction, the fallout was significant. Tonje Sagstuen, the CEO of Norsk Tipping, publicly apologized for the distress caused, acknowledging the frustration and disappointment experienced by thousands of hopeful winners.
"I have received numerous messages from individuals who had begun making plans for vacations, purchasing homes, or renovations before realizing the amounts were incorrect," Sagstuen said. "To them, I can only say: Sorry! But I recognize that this serves as little comfort."
The emotional impact was so great that Sagstuen announced her resignation just a day after the incident became public, citing the breach of public trust as her responsibility.
The mistake has drawn sharp criticism from both Norwegian officials and the public. Norway's Ministry of Culture, which oversees Norsk Tipping, convened an emergency meeting with the company's board. Minister Lubna Jaffery stressed that such incidents are unacceptable, especially given Norsk Tipping's exclusive license to operate gaming services in the country.
The company is now conducting a comprehensive review of its systems to prevent similar errors in the future.