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Europe’s last monopoly market is at a crossroads, as controversies surrounding the Norwegian state-owned operator Norsk Tipping have sparked major social and political concerns ahead of a critical parliamentary election on September 8, which will likely determine the future of the country’s gambling market.
At the start of 2025, Norwegian Gambling and Foundation Authority director general Atle Hamar told a panel at ICE in Barcelona that there were no discussions on changing the licensing model yet.
Hamar’s stance was challenged by Carl Fredrik Stenstrøm, the secretary general of Norsk Bransjeforening for Onlinespill (NBO) trade group, who pointed out that the Progress Party and the Liberal Party had proposed licensing models in their new party programmes, and the Conservative Party was also engaged in ongoing discussions.
Since ICE, there is now no doubt that lawmakers are considering the future of Norsk Tipping after it has been swept up in a series of controversies, most notably in June when thousands of of Eurojackpot winners were told they won 100 times more than they had, causing massive backlash that led to its CEO Tonje Sagstuen departing the company a day later.
With just weeks to go before voting in a parliamentary election, the possibility of introducing a licensing system for gambling now hinges on a tightly contested political battle between right and left-wing parties that is still too close to call.
Dealing With Recent Controversies
Norsk Tipping is dealing with mounting controversies brought to light in recent weeks, including a NOK25m ($2.44m) incorrect payout from its KongKasino game, incorrect Eurojackpot prize notifications sent to thousands of players, self-exclusion failings and long-standing draw errors in Eurojackpot and Lotto that favoured syndicates and gambling clubs, with incorrect winners selected in each draw over several years.
Tore Bell, the deputy director general of the Norwegian Gambling and Foundation Authority, told Vixio GamblingCompliance “we take the cases we have had with Norsk Tipping very seriously”.
“The various cases have also resulted in three administrative fines totalling around NOK80m ($7.79m). We are still following up on several of the cases we have with them,” Bell said.
However, when it comes to the question of how this impacts the future of the monopoly, Bell said: “This is a political issue."
On July 10, 2025, the NGA announced a review of Norsk Tipping’s three largest lottery games: Lotto, Eurojackpot and Vikinglotto.
In a separate update on July 31, Vegar Strand, Norsk Tipping’s acting CEO, announced that Super Draw for Lotto customers who played through cooperative banks between December 21, 2024 to January 4, 2025, who did not have their numbers included in the draw will be refunded “when all investigations are complete and we have submitted the report to the Norwegian Gambling Authority.
“We are talking about a total amount of between 120,000 and 150,000 kroner distributed among those who were affected by this error and who were not included in the draw,” Strand said.
Norsk Tipping added that “after a period with many errors, extensive work is now being done on searching and correcting errors”.
Political Parties' Varied Stances
Norway is currently ruled by a coalition between the Labour and Centre parties, which have shown their support for the monopoly system despite the recent controversies.
Labour is currently ahead in the polls; however, the election is far too close to call, with both the Progress Party and the Conservative Party also being favourites to win the most votes at different times in recent months.
Officially, the Conservative Party wants to preserve the exclusive rights set-up and Norsk Tipping's responsible gambling model. However, the future of the monopoly remains a point of contention within the party, with several of its lawmakers pushing for a licensing system in recent months.
On the other hand, the Progress Party has long called for the end of Norway’s gambling monopoly.
Following the recent scandals, Silje Hjemdal, the party’s gaming policy spokesperson, said on June 29 that Norsk Tipping customers are angry and “excuses from management are not enough”.
Hjemdal said the party believes “an external investigation should be carried out on Norsk Tipping”.
“We must get all the cards on the table about how several scandals can hit them in such a short time,” she said.
Trade Group, Gamblers Association Call For Licensing
Stenstrøm, the secretary general of the NBO, told Vixio GamblingCompliance that it is “out of control what has been going on for the past year and a half”.
He believes some of the issues being brought to light now, such as problems with syndicate betting on certain lottery draws, could have been going on for even longer than five years and questions “where has the NGA been all this time”?
The head of the trade group believes the controversies reflect the reality that Norwegian punters “have no rights”.
He also believes that the Conservative Party, which held its National Convention recently in March, could have shifted to supporting a licensing model had the controversies been made public beforehand, adding that it was “already a close race”.
Stenstrøm explained that what was once a debate dominated by discussion on the free market has now turned into a discussion focusing on responsible gambling and bringing in better controls to oversee and monitor the industry.
The Gamblers' Association (GA), which was set up in 2024 to protect the rights of Norwegian gamblers, has also been vocal following the controversies.
In an update published on August 11, the GA said: “Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to trust the company and that the games are being carried out correctly - and it is also troublesome for us players to think about all the coupons in various games that have been delivered to the company over the years; did everything really go smoothly with the draws, winnings and prizes?”
A recent survey conducted by InFact on behalf of the newspaper Nettavisen also revealed that trust in Norsk Tipping is declining.
Of the respondents, 24.4 percent have very little or no trust at all in Norsk Tipping, 41.5 percent have neither great nor little trust, while 34.1 percent have either quite a lot or very much trust in the state gaming monopoly.
