ONJN reports Romania funded treatment and targeted the black market in its first mandate year

(AsiaGameHub) –   Romania’s National Gambling Office (ONJN) has sped up multiple gambling reforms while working to digitize regulatory oversight and crack down on unlicensed operators.

The regulator’s activity report, published on Monday, also highlighted the establishment of formal funding mechanisms for problem gambling treatment.

The reporting period covered April 2025 to April 2026.

Enhanced enforcement against the gambling black market

Legislative amendments via Law No. 141/2025 have expanded ONJN’s authority, allowing the regulator to issue orders for the removal of illegal gambling content and require monthly reports from Class II operators that detail players’ attempts to access unlicensed online platforms.

Additionally, amendments to Government Emergency Ordinance (GEO) 82/2023 approved in 2024 restrict slot machine operations to only localities with a population of more than 15,000 people.

Over the past year, ONJN has reportedly issued more than 60 illegal content removal orders and blacklisted over 300 unlicensed gambling websites.

ONJN has launched investigations into allegations of gross gaming revenue (GGR) manipulation and unpaid tax discrepancies. The regulator has filed 70 criminal complaints and revoked 60 licenses in response to these violations.

First formal funding channel for prevention and treatment

For the first time, ONJN allocated state funding for responsible gambling initiatives over the past year through its new “Aware and Free” programme. The programme holds a non-reimbursable funding budget of €5 million ($5.8 million).

ONJN split the financing into three categories: NGO-led prevention and protection projects, infrastructure development for public authority-managed addiction treatment centres, and support for research activities.

This funding converts previously unallocated resources into tangible support for vulnerable gamblers. Programme implementation will begin in August and run through December.

Self-exclusion and improved player protection

At the start of the current mandate, ONJN inherited over 30,000 unresolved self-exclusion requests. The regulator now runs a system covering approximately 54,000 self-excluded individuals.

The regulator has drafted an Emergency Ordinance aimed at standardizing self-exclusion procedures across both land-based and online gambling operators.

Under this proposal, ONJN will manage a unified self-exclusion framework that enforces mandatory ID verification at venues and required cooling-off periods. It will also mandate penalties for non-compliance, including fines of up to 100,000 lei and licence suspensions.

This draft ordinance has been submitted to the Ministry of Finance and is awaiting government approval.

Digital register and device traceability

Another core part of ONJN’s reforms is the launch of a public digital register for physical gaming devices. The cloud-native system, said to be the first of its kind in the Government Private Cloud, stores detailed data on every registered gaming machine, including location, ownership, licence validity and manufacturer.

To boost transparency and enforcement, every gaming device is now required to display a QR code linking to its register entry and be equipped with mandatory geolocation tracking.

ONJN describes this register and traceability system as a unique mechanism across Europe. It forms part of a broader package of four IT projects designed to automate operator monitoring, reporting processes and internal control functions.

The regulator openly acknowledged initial “serious shortcomings” in effective oversight, which were identified in an earlier 2023–24 report by the Romanian Court of Accounts. These issues mainly stemmed from a lack of digital infrastructure and an inability to access operators’ server data.

Regulatory control activities and sanctions

During the reporting period, ONJN carried out around 11,000 control activities, issued roughly 10 million lei in fines, disabled or confiscated 260 gaming devices and filed 70 criminal complaints.

A sector-by-sector breakdown of enforcement work is below:

• Land-based operators: ~7,000 control activities, approximately 8.1 million lei ($1.8 million) in fines.
• Remote (online) operators: ~3,500 control activities, roughly 1.2 million lei ($276,000) in fines.
• Other associated entities: ~500 control activities, about 800,000 lei ($184,000) in fines.

ONJN President Vlad-Cristian Soare said of the reforms: “This year has shown that change is possible. It does not come easily and is not done without resistance. There have been roadblocks, opposition and attempts to slow down essential projects, both from within and without.”

He added “the direction has been maintained, projects have continued, and the investigations and initiatives we launched must be followed through to completion.”

Romania was recently announced as a member of the Balkan Gaming Federation, a new collective focused on the West Balkans region. The body was set up to coordinate policy, compliance and commercial activities across the region without replacing existing national regulatory bodies.