Players were not allowed to lock themselves out of gambling for four months. – This is a serious mistake. Protecting vulnerable players is Norsk Tipping’s most important job, says Tore Bell, director of the Norwegian Gambling Authority.

In Norsk Tipping’s games, you should be able to lock yourself out easily and quickly, and thus protect yourself if you play too much.

But for four months last year, this did not work for those playing in the app on iPhone or iPad. To be able to lock themselves out, they had to contact the customer center or log in to the website via PC.

It is difficult to say how many people are affected. If we look at the same time period in 2023, there were 240 more people who locked themselves out of Norsk Tipping’s games. We also know that many people play in the app.

There is a marked decrease in the number of people who have locked themselves out of Norsk Tipping’s games during the period, compared to the same period the year before.

The fact that the lockout has not worked is a clear violation of the law. It is clear that the threshold for locking yourself out is higher if you have to call the customer service center or log in to the computer to do so, says Bell.

The error was not discovered until a player contacted Norsk Tipping. Both the fact that the error occurs and that it is not discovered is a serious failure in the system and routines, says Bell.

The Norwegian Gambling Authority has notified Norsk Tipping of a fine of up to 36 million. This is 0.35 percent of net turnover, which was 10.2 billion last year.

This is a notice, and Norsk Tipping has three weeks to comment before we make a decision.

The size of the fine is determined based on an assessment of the entire case. This is a serious error, which was not discovered until a player contacted us. However, we have also taken into account in our assessment that the error was quickly corrected when it was discovered, and that we are not aware of similar errors having occurred previously.