Romania

About the ONJN

The Oficiul Naţional pentru Jocuri de Noroc (ONJN) — Romania’s tier-two National Gambling Office — has regulated the country’s gambling market since 2013 under the Government Emergency Ordinance 77/2009 framework. The agency oversees four licence classes covering casino, betting, poker, and state lottery operators under our licensing review framework of evergreen tier classification.

ONJN was created in 2013 as an independent administrative body under the Romanian Ministry of Finance, specifically to protect minors and prevent gambling addiction. The agency operates with quasi-regulatory powers — its President issues secondary regulations and orders that flesh out technical standards, licensing procedures, and player-protection mechanisms.

The current ONJN President, Vlad-Cristian Soare, took office in April 2025 and has driven the most intensive reform cycle in the agency’s history. His first-year mandate report (April 2025-April 2026) documented expanded enforcement powers, a unified national self-exclusion system, and the launch of Romania’s first formal responsible-gambling funding programme.

The Romanian gambling market is substantial — close to €1 billion in state tax revenue in 2025 — driven by tens of thousands of slot machines and betting outlets, concentrated heavily in Bucharest and major cities. That scale has triggered both regulatory expansion and grassroots public-health backlash.

How Romanian Gambling Licensing Works

ONJN issues four licence classes under GEO 77/2009. Each class serves a distinct market segment, with mandatory compliance with AML/CTF rules under Romanian Anti-Money Laundering legislation.

• Class 1 — B2C Operator Licence — online casino, sports betting, poker, bingo, and horse racing for player-facing operators; requires EU/EEA/Swiss incorporation for online B2C
• Class 2 — B2B Service Provider Licence — software, content, technology, and payment service providers; companies based outside the EU may apply
• Class 3 — State Monopoly Licence — held exclusively by Loteria Română for state lottery products
• Class 4 — Charity Games Licence — non-profit charity gaming

The fiscal burden climbed sharply in 2025. From 1 August 2025, online operators pay a 30% GGR tax (raised from the previous 21%), with a minimum €480,000 annual authorisation payment. The annual Class 1 licence fee adds another €300,000 on top. Class 2 B2B suppliers pay €20,000 annually.

Government Emergency Ordinance 7/2026, introduced in March 2026, added a transformative second layer: local council veto power. Operators now need both a national ONJN permit and local municipal authorisation to open or maintain a gambling venue. Mayors and councils can ban or restrict betting shops and slot halls within their jurisdictions.

This is the biggest tightening of Romanian gambling regulation since 2013, and over 200 localities could pursue full bans. Early-mover cities including Slatina, Brăila, Ploiesti, and Iași have already announced moves toward complete prohibitions of betting shops within their boundaries.

Player Protection Under ONJN

ONJN Order 79/2025, effective 17 June 2025, established Romania’s first unified national self-exclusion procedure (autoexcludere in Romanian). Players can submit a self-exclusion request in three ways: in person at ONJN offices, electronically with a certified e-signature, or via any licensed gambling operator that must forward the request to ONJN.

The new system creates a national encrypted database of self-excluded persons. All licensed operators must consult the database before opening any new account and before every gambling session. By April 2026, the database covered around 54,000 individuals — up from a backlog of more than 30,000 unresolved requests inherited at the start of the Soare mandate.

In 2025, ONJN also launched Aware and Free, the agency’s first formal responsible-gambling funding stream. The €5 million non-reimbursable programme distributes grants across NGO-led prevention projects, addiction-treatment infrastructure managed by public authorities, and research activities.

Additional player-protection mechanisms include the “Joc Responsabil” Association (jocresponsabil.ro), which offers self-exclusion guidance and addiction counselling referrals, plus industry associations ROMSLOT and AOJND that maintain mandatory staff training and responsible-communication codes.

Advertising restrictions tightened further with National Audiovisual Council Decision 573 of 25 June 2025. Television gambling adverts are now restricted to the 23:00-06:00 window, with exceptions only for live sports broadcasts. Outdoor advertising panels larger than 35 square metres are prohibited entirely, and ads cannot target minors or use celebrities popular with children.

The Soare mandate’s first-year results signal active enforcement: 11,000 inspections (7,000 land-based + 3,500 online), 60 licence revocations, 70 criminal complaints filed, over 300 illegal websites blacklisted, and 260 devices disabled or confiscated. Law 141/2025 expanded ONJN’s enforcement reach further — the regulator can now order removal of illegal gambling content and require Class 2 B2B providers to file monthly reports on player attempts to reach unlicensed platforms.

Honest acknowledgment matters here. Romania’s rapid sector expansion drew sustained public-health critique — advocates warn of high addiction-related social cost and over 200 localities are now pursuing partial or full bans. ONJN does not yet operate an equivalent of the UKGC’s IBAS/ProMediate/Lindens consumer ADR triad — disputes that exceed the operator complaint procedure route through Romanian civil court.

Romania vs Other Licenses

Against the Italian ADM Mediterranean peer, Romania pursues the opposite trajectory. Italy’s 2025 Decreto 41/2024 reform consolidated 407 online sites into just 52 concessions; Romania’s GEO 7/2026 instead empowers local councils to ban venues. Italy taxes 20-25% GGR; Romania climbed to 30% in 2025.

Against Spain’s DGOJ, both regulators sit in the 2025-2026 EU reform-inflection cohort, but Spain’s centralised deposit cap (€600 daily / €1,500 weekly / €3,000 monthly) and the Stop Juego self-exclusion app contrast Romania’s nascent Order 79/2025 framework. Spain taxes 20% GGR — measurably lower than Romania’s 30%.

Against the German federal GGL, the structural contrast is sharper. Germany imposes product-level caps (€1 maximum slot stake, five-second mandatory spin delay, autoplay ban) and a 5.3% stake-based tax. Romania uses no product caps and a much heavier 30% GGR. Germany’s federal-states GGL coordinates 16 Länder; Romania centralises with ONJN plus the new local-council veto.

Against the Dutch KSA framework and Mexico’s tier-three SEGOB, the Tier gap is clear. KSA operates a Tier-1 Heavy Regulation framework with a €700 net deposit ceiling, €350 personal contact mandate, and one-hour signal detection. Romania remains Tier-2, with the Order 79/2025 self-exclusion infrastructure still maturing toward similar depth.

How to Verify a Romanian Gambling License

ONJN maintains a public register of licensed operators at onjn.gov.ro plus a regularly updated blacklist of unauthorised gambling websites. Licensed operators must display their ONJN licence number in the website footer.

For land-based gaming, the agency launched a unique European mechanism in 2025: a public digital register of gaming machines hosted in the Government Private Cloud. Every slot machine and Video Lottery Terminal now carries a unique QR code linked to its entry in the register, plus GPS tracking for real-time traceability. Players can scan the QR code on any machine to verify its licence validity, location, and ownership instantly.

Online verification follows the same logic. Cross-check the operator name against the ONJN public register; if an operator targets Romanian players with .ro domains or Romanian-language interfaces but does not appear on the public list, treat it as unlicensed. The ONJN Order 79/2025 self-exclusion database adds a backstop layer — any operator that fails to consult it before account opening risks fines and licence suspension.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Take

ONJN works best for players who want a Mediterranean EU regulated framework with a rapidly maturing 2025-2026 reform wave. The Order 79/2025 unified self-exclusion register, Aware and Free €5M responsible-gambling funding, GEO 7/2026 local-council veto layer, and Soare mandate’s active enforcement record all signal a regulator committed to reform — even if dispute infrastructure still lags Tier-1 peers.

Choose a different jurisdiction if you need a dedicated consumer ADR triad like the UKGC’s IBAS/ProMediate/Lindens panel, a lower GGR tax rate (Sweden’s 18% or Spain’s 20% beat Romania’s 30%), or product-level caps such as Germany’s €1 maximum slot stake. For Romanian residents and players targeting the Romanian regulated market, the ONJN public register and QR-code verification system remain the practical anchors of regulatory trust.