47 Thousand Norwegians Told They’d Won Millions as Glitch Sparks False Jackpot Frenzy

• Norsk Tipping sent false jackpot alerts to 47K players.
• Coding error multiplied eurocents by 100 instead of dividing.
• CEO resigned after public apology for trust breach.

 Thousands of Norwegians were mistakenly told they had won life-changing jackpots Friday after a technical error by state-owned lottery operator Norsk Tipping multiplied their real winnings by 10K.

A manual coding error left around 47K players dancing for joy before they were brought back to earth with a bump.

“It was a fun minute,” one told the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).

Do the Math

A shame-faced Norsk Tipping explained that it receives the prize amounts for the transnational Eurojackpot lottery from organizers in Germany. These amounts are reported in eurocents, so a €10 prize is given as 1,000 eurocents.

The operator mistakenly multiplied this number by 100 instead of dividing it by 100. This turned 1,000 eurocents into €100K — 10K times greater than the actual prize.

The prize amounts were then converted into Norwegian krone and temporarily delirious winners were informed by SMS of their falsely inflated jackpots.

“The board has been clear to Sagstuen that we believed a change of leadership was necessary to create calm around the company and ensure implementation of improvement measures,” Brustad wrote in an email to domestic news outlet VG.

NRK said it had been inundated with people sharing screenshots of the messages they received about their not-so life-changing lottery wins. Many said they had begun celebrating and planning holidays before they were informed of the mistake.

‘Prize Alert! Just Kidding…’

One couple, Brage Halvorsen and Elise Dalen, from Herøy, told the broadcaster they were in the middle of a renovation project and thought all their dreams had come true when they received a text saying they had won 1.2 million kroner (US$118,800).

My daughter and I were sitting in the chair watching TV when the wife came and sat down with a slightly high pulse,” Halvorsen told NRK.

It took a full 15 minutes before they realized there had been an error.

“You can think about a lot in 15 minutes,” Dalen said. But she remained philosophical about the episode.

“Now it’s 120 kroner (US$11) instead,” she said. “You can probably buy something cool with that too.”