ROMANIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Cosmina Maria Simion, Alina Tace and Petruș Partene, WH Simion & Partners
WH Simion & Partners 10A-10B Intrarea Chefalului Street
Bricklofts, 1st Floor Bucharest 020333 Romania
Tel: +40 314 206 225 Fax: +40 314 206 225 Email: office@whsimionpartners.ro Web: www.whpartners.eu
1. Introduction 1.1 Current Outlook and Recent Changes The Romanian regulatory framework for gaming was reformed in 2015–16. This created a gambling market that can be generally characterised as robust in both its land-based and online sectors. The COVID-19 crisis has had a severe impact on the land-based gambling industry, which has faced continuous restrictions. The year 2022 was one of legislative inflation affect- ing the gambling industry from various (and, in some cases, unexpected) angles, with the most notable changes being the adoption in January 2022 of the AML Instructions applicable to the gambling sector, the increase in gambling taxes and the introduction of new obligations for Class 2 licensees (such as the notification of any changes made to the initial licens- ing documentation on the basis of which the Class 2 licence had been granted). The trend of legislative inflation continued in 2023. Significant changes were made to the primary gambling legislation on 6 October 2023, which had a noteworthy impact on the opera- tion of games of chance both in the land-based and online sectors, where the fees applicable in the sector were yet again increased (not even a year after their last increase). The year 2024 was marked by two rounds of modifi- cations to the primary gambling legislation. The first one, on 28 April 2024, mainly affected land-based gaming through limiting the operation of slot-machine premises to towns with a population of at least 15,000 inhabitants. The second modification, of 28 June 2024, added more details to this limitation by describ-
ing the measures which can be taken by the regulator and by operators. The year 2025 was another one of regulatory upheav- al. Through Law 141/2025 (enacted on 28 July 2025), authorisation fees for gambling operators were sub- stantially increased, while new reporting obligations were introduced for B2B suppliers. The stated ration- ale behind these amendments was twofold: address- ing budgetary constraints by boosting tax revenues, and strengthening the fight against the black market. In this respect, specific categories of B2B operator (eg, software providers, platform providers and payment processors) are now required to block any attempts to access their services from Romania when such access is made via unlicensed online operators. In addition, Law 141/2025 introduced enhanced tracea- bility requirements for land-based gaming equipment. Where the following sectors are described as permit- ted, this means that the respective game or games of chance is/are permitted subject to obtaining the necessary licence and authorisation. Betting Betting activities are permitted under Romanian law, and the gambling legislation expressly regulates three types of online betting: • fixed-odds betting; • exchange betting; and 2. Jurisdictional Overview 2.1 Online Gambling
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