Experience: I won the lottery for 15 minutes
============================================

I can't remember the first time I played the
lottery - I was probably quite young. I'm an
optimist. If you don't play, you can't win, and
somebody has to win the big prize. Why not me?
To me, winning would mean freedom - leave my
job, have no debts and do exactly as I pleased.

I live in Norway, and every few weeks I'd buy a
lottery ticket. I'd occasionally win 100 kroner
(GBP 7.50), which just covered the cost of the
ticket. It kept the dream alive, though.

In June, I was on holiday in Greece with my
girlfriend. We'd had the most amazing day, and
were watching the sunset with a glass of wine.
Earlier in the day, we had discussed buying
a holiday home there. "I'd need to win the
lottery first!" I joked.

Suddenly, my phone buzzed with a text message.
It was from Norsk Tipping, the Norwegian lottery
corporation, saying I had won big in the
Eurojackpot. I had to read the message two or
three times. My hands were starting to shake as
I logged into the app and saw a notification
saying I had won 1.3m kroner (GBP 97,000).

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.

I called my mum and blurted out: "I've won the
lottery!" She couldn't believe it. "You're due
some luck your way," she laughed.

After I hung up, I sat and stared at the screen,
and started to feel that something wasn't right.
I checked the winning numbers and compared them
with mine. I'd only matched two main numbers and
one bonus number. My heart dropped to the pit of
my stomach. There was no way I could have won so
much money.

Dozens of news stories had already started to
pop up. They said that the company had made a
mistake when converting the prize money from
euros into Norwegian kroner; instead of dividing
winners' portions by 100, someone had
accidentally multiplied them by 100.

Reality laughed in my face, and I worked out I'd
actually won about GBP 10, along with thousands
of others who had been wrongly told they'd won
big. The CEO of the company resigned, but with a
payout bigger than my imagined win, 3m kr (GBP
225,000), which I found quite ironic.

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.

The rest of the evening felt very subdued. We
were both drained. You can't miss what you never
had, but we felt so angry they could get
people's hopes up like that. The next day, I was
even more annoyed that nobody from Norsk Tipping
had been in touch to confirm we hadn't won and
apologise. It was two or three days before we
were able to stop thinking about what could have
been. It took the shine off what had been a
wonderful holiday.

It wasn't until the Monday morning that I
received a message from Norsk Tipping to confirm
it. I'm glad I had my wits about me and realised
quite quickly there was an error, because if
I thought I'd won for a whole weekend, I might
have already spent a lot of money. Getting the
confirmation in writing felt like the first blow
all over again.

I haven't taken it too seriously. Norwegian
people generally don't like to make a fuss, so,
like me, people just moved on. I wouldn't say
I'm at the stage of being able to see the funny
side, though. My friends have all been very
sympathetic - I'm sure they would have liked me
to win, too.

I don't actually know what I spent my actual
winnings on. It's not even enough money for a
glass of champagne here in Norway. It probably
went towards some grocery shopping.

The lottery feels tainted for me now; I don't
play any more. There's a saying in Norway:
"You're either lucky in love or games." I have
to accept that I'm lucky in love, and that's my
lot. I think my girlfriend would agree we'd much
rather it be that way - even if the Greek
holiday home has to remain a pipe dream.

* As told to Heather Main

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