Representative image showing a lottery ticket
Credit: iStock Photo
A goof up by the state-owned gambling operator resulted in many Norwegians believing that had hit the jackpot by winning a huge amount in a lottery.
Multiple media reports reported that Norsk Tipping, the state-owned gambling operator in Norway admitted it wrongly notified many customers of large Eurojackpot wins, apparently due to a technical error.
The company receives money from Germany in euros and converts it into Norwegian kroner.
“It's during this conversion that a manual error has been made in the code that is entered into our game engine,” the gambling company said in a statement.
“The amount has been multiplied by 100, instead of being divided by 100.”
The prizes were displayed on the company’s website and mobile app, but taken down soon after the blooper, but the damage was done by that time.
The error drew lot of flak from from customers, regulators and even Norway's Norwegian ministry of culture.
The company later held an emergency meeting with the ministry of culture. Later company CEO Tonje Sagstuen became the first casualty of the faux pas as she decided to step down from the post after owning moral responsibility to the incident.
“As a manager, it has been my responsibility to handle the mistakes that have occurred,” Tonje said in a statement.
“Therefore, it is also incredibly sad to leave Norsk Tipping and all the talented people who work in Hamar. I will miss everyone I have worked with, but I am confident that all the improvement processes we have initiated are in good hands.”