Significant changes were recently brought to the gambling legislation in Romania[1] through Law no. 141/2025 on fiscal and state budget matters (the Amendment Legislation). Below is a brief presentation of the main changes enacted by the Amendment Legislation. Generally, the Amendment Legislation entered into force on 28 July 2025, subject to certain exceptions mentioned below.
√ Additional obligations for B2B operators (class II licence)
The Amendment Legislation introduces additional interdictions and rules for B2B operators holding class II licence in Romania (B2B Operators) related to provision of services to entities that are not authorised to organise gambling activities in Romania. Each B2B operator should make necessary diligence checks in order to ensure compliance with such interdictions.
(i) Specifically, the B2B Operators are prohibited to:
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- provide any related services to entities not licensed and holding valid authorisations issued by the Romanian gambling office (NGO) which: (i) offer content in Romanian language (fully or partially) on internet domains or subdomains; (ii) accept deposits or withdrawals in RON or other currencies, including cryptocurrencies; and/or (iii) allow access to their websites/platforms to players from the Romanian territory or to players which are Romanian citizens without foreign fiscal residency;
- provide services to companies / websites organising online gambling that can be accessed from Romania (i.e for holders of Romanian IPs) without holding a class I licence and exploitation authorisations issued by the NGO;
- provide services to entities blacklisted by NGO, entities not restricting access to individuals from the Romanian territory, or Romanian citizens not having fiscal residency in another state.
(ii) B2B Operators providing software development and distribution, hosting and payment processing are now obliged to implement technical measures for their own systems to allow real-time monitoring of the location of the players (separately, from the information provided by the integration of the platform). Additionally, such entities shall report monthly to the NGO on the: (i) states from which their own information system is accessed by the players; and (ii) identification data of the entities offering access to players from the Romanian territory, and/or Romanian citizens not having fiscal residency in a different state.
Based on such reports, NGO’s supervisory committee can issue a decision for blacklisting the internet domains, platforms and gaming applications that are provided in breach of the gambling legislation.
(iii) Upon becoming aware that unlicensed entities are offering services in Romania, or to Romanian citizens without a foreign fiscal residence, the B2B Operators shall block participants’ access and ask the game organiser to remedy the situation. Information on the blocked participants and websites/ platforms/ applications allowing unauthorised access shall also be reported by the B2B Operators to NGO on a monthly basis.
√ Additional obligations for class B2C operators (class I licence)
The Amendment Legislation introduces additional obligations for B2C operators, i.e.:
- not to conclude any contract aimed at facilitating access to online gambling platforms listed on the NGO’s website licensed entities list or blacklist. Such prohibition also applies to offering any material or financial rewards to individuals who facilitate access for other individuals to such platforms from public spaces located in Romania;
- to display a QR code issued by NGO on each slot machine or VLT terminal. The QR code shall provide access to all the relevant information regarding the organiser (i.e. the licence and authorisation number, machine identification details, location).
- upon request of the exploitation authorisation, the B2C operators shall also prove that the slot machines and VLT terminals must be equipped with a standalone GPS device that ensures real-time traceability of the gambling device, from the moment of production, intra-community acquisition, or import, until scrapping, export, or intra-community delivery. No specific clarifications are included in respect of the slot machines and VLT terminals for which exploitation authorisations are still in force or shall be renewed.
The above obligations will enter into force within 180 days after the publication of the Amendment Legislation with the Official Gazette (i.e. from 25 July 2025). Within 30 days from the Amendment Legislation entry into force the NGO will issue an order specifying further details regarding the implementation of the requirement related to GPS tracking of the slot machines and VLT terminals.
√ Gambling in public spaces
The Amendment Legislation introduces specific rules related to the access to online gambling platforms in public, as follows:
- access of gambling platforms in public is permitted only from devices and accounts owned by the person accessing such platforms;
- offering of internet access devices in any public space (such as internet cafés, bars, hotels, etc.) is permitted only provided that the access to online gambling platforms is restricted on such devices. The entities providing internet access devices in public must ensure that the technical restrictions are regularly updated to include the gambling platforms listed on the NGO’s website as licensed and blacklisted entities and cannot be deactivated by the users.
√ New types of fraudulent activities
Two new types of fraudulent activities performed by individuals in online gambling are regulated by the law, namely: (i) fraudulent participation in online gambling and (ii) fraudulent facilitation of participation in online gambling. These relate to the activities of the individuals that (i) access in public spaces online gambling platforms from devices that do not belong to them and (ii) facilitate the access to gambling platforms to other individuals in public locations through devices that allow access to internet without having the restriction to gambling platforms (as detailed above).
√ New competence for the NGO to issue enforcement orders
The Amendment Legislation provides that the NGO may issue orders to act against illegal content provided by any online gambling operator that operates without a licence/ in excess of the licence/ in violation of the provisions of the gambling legislation, regardless of the manner in which the content is made available. The orders will be sent directly to online platforms, including search engines and social media networks. The order will have immediate enforceability and will have to be implemented within a maximum of 5 hours from the time they are communicated through any means of communication. Any appeals against the orders issued by the NGO will be subject to administrative litigation law.
√ New offences and administrative sanctions
New criminal offences and administrative sanctions related to fraudulent gambling activities and illegal access to online gambling platforms (correlative to the new prohibitions and breaches of the new obligations detailed above) are introduced and shall be effective within 30 days after the publication of the Amendment Legislation with the Official Gazette.
√ New taxation framework for B2C operators
Annual fees for exploitation authorisation are amended starting with 1 august 2025, as follows:
- Mutual betting: 25% of gambling revenues generated by the operator, but no less than €144,000 (from 21% and €120,000);
- Fixed odds and exchange betting: 25% of gambling revenues generated by the operator, but no less than €240,000 (from 21% and €200,000);
- Each class A slot-machine gambling device: €6,000 instead of the former €5,300;
- Remote gambling – class I and class III organisers: 30% of gambling revenues generated by the operator, but no less than €480,000 (from 21% and €480,000).
The special vice tax for slot-machine and VLT gambling becomes €1,000 per authorised unit per year. For lottery-type games, except for video lottery, a tax of 8% is introduced, applied to the operator’s revenue. This tax must be paid in full to the state budget by the 25th of the following month for the previous month’s revenue.
The amount and method of calculating the specific newly regulated gambling taxes shall apply starting from 1 August 2025.
For annual operating authorisations that are still valid on the date of entry into force of the Amendment Legislation, the authorisation tax for the remaining period shall be recalculated according to the new taxation level.
√ New taxation level for players
For players, amounts won from gambling are now taxable at a 4% rate (from the previous 3%) for amounts of up to EUR 2,000. The progressive tax percentages for amounts over EUR 2,000 remain unchanged.
[1] Government Emergency Ordinance no. 77/2009 on the organisation and operation of gambling activities.
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