Man gets a message about his $130,000 lottery win — 15 minutes later, he got a reality check
People across the world hope to win the lottery someday, but things can sometimes take an unfortunate turn. Lottery companies also tend to make some big mistakes when it comes to revealing the names of winners. That is exactly what one Norwegian man experienced recently, and he was not too happy about it.
The man’s name was Ole Fredrik Sveen, who had been informed that he had won about $130,000, by far his biggest win so far. Obviously, Sveen was overjoyed upon learning of this and shared the good news with his loved ones. However, after careful inspection, he realised that the lottery company had made a mistake even before it had called him. He wrote a piece in The Guardian recently, documenting his experience.
Before this moment, Sveen occasionally won 100 kronen ($9.90), but he always remained an optimist when it came to lotteries. He wrote that he was quite the optimist, and the occasional winnings would keep him motivated to try again. After all, winning the lottery just once could change a person’s life and do away with many of their problems. Therefore, the small investments over time were worth the risk.
Sveen wrote that he was in Greece with his partner when he got the message from Norsk Tipping, a Norwegian lottery corporation, which said that he had won big in the Eurojackpot. It said that he had won 1.3 million kroner ($128,360). The holiday was already going well, but this news just made it better. For him, this was a fantastic chance to take care of his matters and lead a new and better life.
“My heart skipped a beat. I felt quite light-headed. Finally, the moment I had dreamed of had arrived. I showed my phone to my girlfriend. She gasped. My head started to spin with possibilities. Could I leave my job as a culinary teacher and go travelling? Maybe we could buy a holiday home after all,” he wrote. Sveen even ended up calling his mother, who believed her son got his due.
Unfortunately, the joy did not last very long. He sat there and stared at his screen for a while before realising something was off. He had only matched two numbers and one bonus number. This was never going to be enough for one to win that much money. He then started seeing news reports that Norsk Tipping had made a mistake converting the money from euros into Norwegian kroner. Instead of dividing the portions by 100, they had multiplied them by 100. This meant that Sveen had won just $13, like many others who had received the same news as him.
Sveen was glad that he figured it out before going on a carefree spending spree, but the company did not inform him of this for some days after it happened. “It was a crushing disappointment. 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,” he added.
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