Many people in Norway were incorrectly informed that they had won substantial amounts in the lottery, but actually only received small winnings like £9 due to a significant error made by the nation’s gaming corporation.
Many participants in Friday’s Eurojackpot believed they had won millions when the Norwegian operator, Norsk Tipping, made a conversion error.
The firm incorrectly multiplied by 100, rather than dividing by 100, during the conversion of the prize sums from Euros to Norwegian kroner.
This means approximately 400,000 individuals who matched both primary numbers along with one European number were expected to win around 1,262,000 kroner (£91,000). However, this prize amount was actually valued at roughly just £9.
On that evening, 19,000 individuals got push notifications, and 13,000 others received SMS messages, each informing them that they had won millions. The Norwegian news website VG has reported this information.
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The accurate prize money was revised on Saturday night, and nobody received an incorrect payment, according to the gaming firm.
Tonje Sagstuen, Norsk Tipping’s CEO, offered an apology and stepped down from her position the following day.
A mother of three remembered her elation and tears when she learned that she had won 980,000 (approximately SGD 71,000) kroner as part of a group bet.
Her dreams of a fresh start were shattered 20 minutes later when she received a message informing her that she had only won 97 kroner (£11).
She told VG 'It was akin to riding the globe's most precipitous roller coaster.'
'Within that fifteen minutes, I mentally spent two million kroner. My intention was to clear my mortgage.'
'I succeeded in calling my father, and my eldest kids were away on vacation. I was planning to give them some kroner and tell them, "Enjoy yourselves, get something special." Luckily, I didn’t end up doing that.'
The Norsk Tipping board convened with the Ministry of Culture on Saturday, followed soon after by a meeting with the CEO, Sagstuen.
She acknowledged the error as a 'violation of trust' in her statement and added: "I deeply regret letting so many down, and I realize that people are furious with us."
Minister Lubna Jaffery rebuked the gambling firm, stating 'errors like these must not occur'.
The Eurojackpot serves as an alternate option to Euromillions and is played in Germany, Spain, Italy, Norway, and several other European nations.
To claim the jackpot, starting at a minimum of 10 million euros (£8.5 million), you must match five main numbers along with two Euro numbers.
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