Norsk Tipping to pay NOK 4.5 million penalty fee

(PRESS RELEASE) -- In March, a player at Norsk Tipping was mistakenly paid NOK 25 million from the casino game KongKasino. The Norwegian Lottery Authority has now decided that Norsk Tipping must pay a fee of 4.5 million.

The wrong payment is a serious breach of the money gambling act, says Atle Hamar, director of the Lotteries and Foundations Authority.

KongKasino is an online casino, and is one of the games with the highest risk of gambling problems. The game has a high proportion of problem players. 27 percent of those who play casino games at Norsk Tipping are in the moderate risk or problem gambler categories. This is six times more than the average for all gambling games.

One of the measures to prevent players getting into trouble is prize limits. In KongKasino, the maximum prize is NOK 100,000. In addition, a jackpot prize of NOK 5 million is permitted. Nevertheless, one player got NOK 25 million in his account by mistake.

This is a big wrongful payment. There is a relatively high chance that the money could have gone to a player with a gambling problem or at risk of getting it. Then those involved would have had a lot to play for.