Additional Coverage:
- Man gets a message about his $130,000 lottery win — 15 minutes later, he got a reality check (marketrealist.com)
Lottery Dream Crushed: Norwegian Man’s $130,000 Win Turns into $13 in a Heartbeat
Oslo, Norway – Imagine getting the message of a lifetime, only to have your dreams dashed minutes later. That’s precisely what happened to Ole Fredrik Sveen, a Norwegian man who recently experienced the exhilarating high and crushing low of a lottery “win” that wasn’t.
Sveen, a self-proclaimed lottery optimist who usually sees modest 100 kronen ($9.90) wins, was enjoying a vacation in Greece with his partner when a message from Norsk Tipping, Norway’s national lottery corporation, popped up. The news was electrifying: he had won 1.3 million kroner, roughly $128,360, in the Eurojackpot.
“My heart skipped a beat. I felt quite light-headed,” Sveen recounted in a piece he later wrote for The Guardian.
“Finally, the moment I had dreamed of had arrived.” Visions of quitting his culinary teaching job, traveling the world, and even buying a holiday home danced in his head.
He immediately shared the joyous news with his girlfriend, who gasped in delight, and even called his mother, who believed her son had finally gotten his due.
However, the euphoria was short-lived. Just 15 minutes after receiving the life-altering message, a cold dose of reality set in.
As he stared at his screen, Sveen noticed a glaring discrepancy. He had only matched two main numbers and one bonus number – a combination that would never yield such a substantial prize.
It turns out Norsk Tipping had made a monumental error in converting the prize money from euros to Norwegian kroner. Instead of dividing the prize by 100, they had mistakenly multiplied it by 100. This meant that Sveen, along with countless others who received the same incorrect notification, had actually won a mere $13.
While Sveen was relieved he realized the mistake before embarking on a premature spending spree, the emotional whiplash was profound. The company, he noted, took several days to officially inform him of the error.
“It was a crushing disappointment,” Sveen shared. “The holidays, the plans I’d made in my head, all disappeared.
I had to call my mum and tell her I hadn’t actually won any money. My girlfriend broke down in tears.”
This unfortunate incident serves as a stark reminder that even lottery dreams, however vivid, can sometimes be subject to a rather inconvenient reality check.