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Romania has proposed a monthly financial limit for payments made to gambling operators, as the country continues to pile pressure on the gambling industry and tighten rules.
The draft law, submitted on March 4, 2025, would impose a maximum limit of 10 percent of a player’s revenue from the previous month “regardless of the way in which the amounts are spent”.
While financial and banking institutions are to be responsible for ensuring this limit is complied with in case of online gambling activities, gambling operators are responsible for its implementation in gambling establishments.
The law has been proposed by senators from the Save Romania Union party, the third largest party in parliament, but not party of the country's ruling coalition.
Under the terms of the bill, the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF) would be responsible for the implementation of a national platform, which would reflect customers’ available income within the above limit. Meanwhile, each gambling operator would be required to report the amounts spent by customers to the ANAF in real time.
Penalties for financial and banking institutions amount to one percent of their annual turnover. Meanwhile, financial penalties for gambling operators would amount to a maximum of 500,000 Romanian Leu (RON) (approx. €100,483). A repeated offence would result in the cancellation of the gambling licence.
The law, if passed, would enter into force 60 days following its publication in the official gazette.
Separately, on March 4, 2025, a draft law amending the Gambling Act was submitted to the Romanian parliament that would require the National Gambling Office to have a self-exclusion button available at the top of its website, and display the number of requests for self-exclusion that it has received and processed in real time.
Self-excluded players would also be entitled to a refund for the amounts played during their self-exclusion period, within 48 hours after submitting a request to this purpose.
Failure to comply with the provisions relating to self-exclusion could result in the suspension of the gambling licence for a period of six months and the imposition of a fine amounting to as much as RON100,000.
The proposals follow a host of licence cancellations in Romania after the introduction of new financial guarantee requirements at the start of the year.
This has resulted in many smaller operators withdrawing from the market, however, the market is still competitive for more established operators and there is still interest for new licences, Cosmina Simion, managing partner at WH Simion & Partners, recently told Vixio GamblingCompliance.
