Lottsift technical error may have lost hundreds of gambling tip-offs in Norway

Norway’s gambling regulator Lottstift has warned that a technical error meant hundreds of tip-offs over gambling activities in the country may not have been received.

The regulator said anyone that filed an online form with a tip-off on illegal or unsafe gambling in the market had not had it submitted due to an error dating back to March 2024. The glitch was only discovered in June this year.

Most of the tips would have been related to illegal gambling in Norway. However, Lottstift added that some may have been in reference to funding for foundations and voluntary organisations across the country.

The online form is the only way of submitting tips anonymously to the regulator. Consumers can also file tip-offs via email and telephone, but for this they must identify themselves.

In an update on 19 June Lottstift said the error has now been fixed and it managed to retrieve 120 tips from the last two months. However, other tip-offs have been automatically deleted due to privacy concerns.

Regulator regrets ‘serious’ error

Lottstift Director General Atle Hamar apologised for the error. He said it was a “serious” issue that should have been identified much earlier.

“We depend on tips from the public,” Hamar said. “People should have confidence that the tips they send will reach us.

“Several hundred tips may be missing for us, but we do not have exact numbers. We will thoroughly review this and make the necessary changes to prevent something similar from happening again.

“People should have confidence that the tips they send will be received and that we will take them seriously. Getting tips is important to us. Several of our inspections start with tips from the public.