ROMANIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Cosmina Maria Simion, Alina Tace and Petruș Partene, WH Simion & Partners
while fees for B2B operators increased from EUR1,000 per year to EUR15,000 per year. • Gaming halls equipped with slot-machines are only allowed in localities with a population greater than 15,000 inhabitants. • The level of the guarantees covering the risk of non-payment of taxes due to the state budget has been significantly increased (in some cases, the level of the guarantee is 50 times higher than the previous requirement): (a) For land-based gambling (except casinos), starting 1 January 2025, the level of the guar- antee is EUR1 million, irrespective of GGR. For land-based casinos, the level of the guarantee is set to EUR3 million. The previous form pro- vided for a different method of calculating the guarantees for land-based gambling based on each gambling activity. By way of example, the maximum level of guarantee could not exceed EUR60,000 for slot machines, EUR175,000 for casinos, EUR7,000 for bingo games, or EUR100,000 for fixed-odds betting. (b) For online gambling (except casino activities), the level of the guarantee starting 1 January 2025, is set at EUR 2 million, irrespective of the value of the GGR. For online casino activities, the level of the guarantee starting 1 January 2025 is EUR5 million, irrespective of the value of the GGR. The previous form provided for a different method of calculating the guarantee for online gambling based on each gambling activity offered. By way of example, the level of the guarantee was set to EUR100,000 for online fixed-odds betting, mutual betting or exchange betting, to EUR100,000 for online bingo and keno games, EUR100,000 for online casino activities, or EUR100,000 for online tombola. Moreover, the requirement to prove the existence of a technical infrastructure for the compilation of databases of self-excluded and undesirable persons and the obligation to keep electronic records of all persons accessing venues where gambling activities are organised and operated, as well as archive the electronic databases of self-excluded and undesirable persons and keep them for a minimum of five years
after their creation, were removed by the new govern- ment emergency ordinance. The government emergency ordinance amending the primary gambling legislation introduced a new pro- vision stating that the registry of self-excluded and undesirable persons will be held by the ONJN, while operators will have real-time access to such regis- try. Previously, each organiser had the obligation to maintain such a registry at the company level. In this sense, requests for self-exclusion could be submitted to the ONJN or to gambling operators. Now, gambling operators are obliged to send the requests for self- exclusion to the ONJN within two working days from the date of registration, and the lists of persons who, through internal decisions of the organisers, have been declared undesirable, together with the reasons for this measure, within five working days from the date of the drawing up or modification. In addition, as a rule, B2B licensed operators are pro- hibited from providing services to unlicensed B2C operators that target the Romanian market, whether by offering content in Romanian, accepting deposits in Romanian leu or other currencies (including cryp- to), or allowing access from Romania or by Roma- nian citizens without foreign tax residency. They are also forbidden from working with entities or domains on the ONJN blacklist or with operators that allow access from Romanian IP addresses without holding a Class I licence and ONJN authorisation. In addition, B2B operators holding a Class II licence for software, platform, or payment services must implement tech- nical measures to detect the true location of players, prepare reports identifying access by Romanian play- ers or those using Romanian IP addresses, and pro- vide these reports upon ONJN request. If unlicensed Class I operators are found to allow Romanian players access, such B2B entities must restrict access, notify the operator to remedy the issue, and submit to ONJN a monthly report (by the tenth day of the following month) detailing the number of blocked players and the domains, platforms, or apps through which access was attempted. Following these amendments, it is expected that the activities of gambling operators currently active in the Romanian market will face greater scrutiny. This
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