Romania’s National Gambling Office (ONJN) has sped up multiple gambling reforms while advancing digital supervision and clamping down on unapproved operators.
The authority’s activity report, released on Monday, also highlighted its creation of official funding channels for treating gambling addiction.
The report timeframe spanned from April 2025 to April 2026.
Enhanced black market enforcement
Legal changes through Law number 141/2025 broadened ONJN’s powers, allowing the authority to issue removal directives for illegal gambling material and require monthly submissions from class II operators describing player efforts to reach unauthorized online sites.
Furthermore, ratified modifications to Government Emergency Ordinance (GEO) 82/2023 in 2024 resulted in slot machines being limited to towns with populations exceeding 15,000.
During the last year, ONJN has apparently dispatched over 60 orders to remove illegal content and added more than 300 unapproved gambling websites to its blacklist.
ONJN has initiated inquiries into suspected gross gaming revenue (GGR) manipulation and tax shortfalls. The authority has lodged 70 criminal complaints and canceled 60 licenses as a result of these violations.
First structured funding stream for prevention and treatment
For the first time, ONJN last year directed government funds to responsible gambling projects via the new “Aware and Free” program. This program had a budget of €5 million ($5.8 million) in non‑repayable funding.
ONJN split the money into three segments: NGO‑run prevention and safeguarding initiatives, infrastructure building for addiction treatment facilities operated by public bodies, and backing for research efforts.
The funds represented a transformation of earlier unassigned assets into concrete assistance for at‑risk gamblers. The program’s execution will start in August and continue until December.
Self‑exclusion and augmented player protection
At the beginning of the current term, ONJN inherited more than 30,000 pending self‑exclusion requests. The authority now runs a system that includes roughly 54,000 self‑excluded persons.
The authority drew up an Emergency Ordinance intended to standardize self‑exclusion processes across both physical and internet gambling operators.
Under this plan, ONJN would manage a unified self‑exclusion system requiring compulsory ID checks at locations and cooling‑off intervals. It would also impose punishments such as fines up to 100,000 lei and license revocations for failure to comply.
This ordinance is pending government endorsement and has been sent to the Ministry of Finance.
Digital register and machine traceability
Also included in ONJN’s reforms was the introduction of a public digital registry of tangible gambling machines. The cloud‑based system, said to be the first of its type in the Government Private Cloud, supplied comprehensive information on each enrolled gaming device, encompassing location, ownership, license validity, and manufacturer.
To boost openness and compliance, every gaming machine must now show a QR code connecting to its registry record and be fitted with compulsory geolocation tracking.
ONJN introduced this registry and traceability system as a distinctive European tool. It was part of a larger set of four IT initiatives designed to automate operator surveillance, reporting procedures, and internal control tasks.
The authority openly admitted early “significant deficiencies” in efficient supervision, noted in previous reports by the Romanian Court of Accounts (2023–24). This largely resulted from insufficient digital infrastructure and incapacity to retrieve operators’ server information.
Oversight activities and sanctions
Throughout the reporting period, ONJN carried out about 11,000 inspection actions, levied approximately 10 million lei in penalties, deactivated or seized 260 gambling machines, and lodged 70 criminal complaints.
Breakdown of enforcement per sector shows:
- Land‑based operators: roughly 7,000 inspection actions, about 8.1 million lei ($1.8 million) in fines.
- Remote (online) operators: around 3,500 inspection actions, approximately 1.2 million lei ($276,000) in fines.
- Other associated entities: about 500 inspection actions, roughly 800,000 lei ($184,000) in fines.
ONJN President, Vlad‑Cristian Soare stated regarding the reforms: “This year has demonstrated that change is achievable. It does not come easily and is not accomplished without opposition. There have been obstacles, resistance, and efforts to hinder critical projects, both internally and externally.”
He added, “The course has been sustained, the projects have advanced, and the investigations and initiatives that have been started must be completed.”
Romania was recently listed as a member of the Balkan Gaming Federation, a new West Balkans‑oriented group. It was formed to align policy, compliance, and business operations throughout the area without substituting current national authorities.