Norwegian Lottery and Foundations Authority Lost Important Tips Due to Technical Issue

The Norwegian Lottery and Foundations Authority (Lottstift) announced that a technical problem has caused it to lose many tips. While the body succeeded in recovering some of them, the rest had to be deleted due to privacy concerns.

Norwegian Lottery and Foundations Authority Reported Technical Issue

In its official release, Lottstift said that tips sent via its tip form since March 2024 might have not entered the organization’s archive system, causing it to miss important tips. Lottstift recognized the seriousness of this mistake and regretted that it was discovered more than a year later.

The authority clarified that the problematic period ran from March 2024 to June 2025 when the issue was finally discovered. This means that hundreds of tips sent to the authority might be missing.

To make matters worse, submitters did not receive a tip form notification informing them about the fact that their tip did not arrive.

Some Tips Were Successfully Recovered

As mentioned, Lottstift managed to recover 120 tips from the last two months in which the issue persisted. This suggests that hundreds of tips have now been lost forever. The authority explained that it had to delete the rest due to privacy concerns.

Lottstift director Atle Hamar explained:

This 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.

Atle Hamar, director, Norwegian Lottery and Foundations Authority (Lottstift)

Lottstift Encouraged Citizens to Continue Reporting Violations

Lottstift, for context, allows citizens to tip it off about potential violations via email, contact form and phone. Contact form tips are fully anonymous, protecting the identity of the sender. Most of the tips the organization receives are related to illegal gambling, although it also receives ones related to foundations and grants to voluntary organizations.

Tips play a crucial role in Lottstift’s oversight, allowing citizens to report violations and facilitate its monitoring work. The authority emphasized that many of its most important investigations start with a tip-off from the public. Because of that, Hamar encouraged citizens to continue sending tips to Lottstift. 

Lottstift promised that the contact form issue has now been fixed and apologized for the issue. The body said that people should have confidence that their tips will be received and that the authority is taking them seriously. Because of that, the regulator vowed to remain vigilant and prevent such technical issues in the future.