Norwegian problem gambling tool has been broken for more than a year

The gambling reportage tool used by the Norwegian government to track and record tip-offs of illegal and problem gambling has been broken for more than a year.

Lottstift is run by the nation to report illegal gambling, but is also used to notify the regulator of foundation and charity work by voluntary organisations. The news has now broken from Lottstift that there has been a major incident with their tool dating back to March 2024, which could spell a serious issue for the regulator when it comes to flagging the illicit side of gambling in the nation.

The regulator released a statement about the issue, and the Director of the Norwegian Lottery and Foundations Authority, Atle Hamar, spoke directly about the incident.

He said, “We depend on tips from the public, and people should have confidence that the tips they send will reach us. This is a serious mistake, and it took far too long for us to discover it.”

Norway does not run a multi-license model for gambling operators and has opted for a single state-run entity that allows the regulation of betting within the nation. This includes the handling of complaints and concerns about the black market and illegal gambling.

“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,” said Hamar.

Some lobbyists have called for this to be reviewed due to the tax influx that can be received from license holders, but the nation has been stoic behind statistics that show problem gambling on the decline.

Lottistift also reported that several recent submissions to the site in the last two months have been deleted due to data concerns. There have been one hundred and twenty submissions in this time, but Hamar was vocal in his acceptance of the loss of reportage.

“This (the error) means that several hundred tips may be lost to 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,” he concluded.

Featured image: Lottstift.

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