Norway's gambling regulator, the Lottery and Foundations Authority (Lottstift), has revealed a major technical failure that caused the loss of hundreds of anonymous public tip-offs related to illegal gambling activity over a 14-month period. The malfunction, which persisted undetected from March 2024 to June 2025, affected the authority’s online submission system—an essential tool in Norway’s strict regulatory model.
Atle Hamar, Director General of Lottstift, acknowledged the incident as a “serious error,” emphasizing that public trust is crucial: “We depend on tips from the public. People should have confidence that the tips they send will reach us.” The system flaw meant that several hundred submissions were never received and, due to privacy regulations, many of them are unrecoverable. Only around 120 recent submissions were salvaged after the issue came to light.
Norway gambling industry lost 2/3 payment methods
This failure could have wider implications for Norway’s battle against unlicensed gambling. The country operates under a monopoly-based model where enforcement relies heavily on community participation to identify unlawful operators and offshore platforms. With this blind spot, enforcement efforts may have unknowingly allowed bad actors to operate unchecked.
In response, Lottstift announced a full review of its technical infrastructure, along with new redundancies and protocols to prevent similar data losses in the future. While the regulator has pledged transparency and swift correction, the incident serves as a wake-up call for gambling regulators worldwide on the importance of reliable whistleblower systems.
