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Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan has announced that his government plans to propose a draft legislation that will enable municipal authorities to decide on licences for local gambling outlets.
“It is necessary for city halls to establish areas in which, based on a special tax, they will be able to decide on the intensity” of gambling outlets that operate within an area, Bolojan said during a recent press conference, local media reported.
“There has been a lot of talk about gambling. We will come up with a provision that will decentralise authorisation of gambling,” the prime minister said.
“It is not enough to authorise it at a national level, it is necessary for city halls of municipalities to establish an area – it can be the entire city or it can be a street or it can be a neighbourhood, or Mamaia, to give an example in the case of Constanța Municipality – in which, based on a special tax, a city hall can decide” how many gambling outlets can operate, according to the official.
Bolojan, who is the leader of the co-ruling National Liberal Party (PNL), was sworn in as the country’s prime minister on June 23.
One of the new government’s objectives is to increase the state’s tax revenues through the introduction of new levies, and the gambling industry is one of the first targeted sectors on which the cabinet will impose increased taxes. Earlier this month, the cabinet adopted a fiscal legislative package that includes a hike in gambling tax rates. Romania-based online operators will be imposed with a 27 percent tax on gross gaming revenue (GGR), an increase from the current rate of 21 percent, and brick-and-mortar outlet operators will pay a 23 percent levy, also up from 21 percent.
As part of the latest fiscal package, the levies imposed on slot operators are also set to rise, with the authorisation fee per machine to increase from €5,300 to €5,800, and the tax per machine to rise from €500 to €1,000.
The Romanian parliament approved the cabinet’s legislative package on July 14, paving the way for its implementation on August 1.
Bolojan runs a broad coalition cabinet composed of his PNL party, the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the Save Romania Union (USR) and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians (UDMR). Together, the four parties hold comfortable majorities in both chambers of the Romanian parliament, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, at 205 out of the 330 MPs and 84 out of the 139 senators, respectively. This allows the government to pass its legislative proposals with ease, however, it also requires the cabinet to devote effort to internal alignment on legislation.
The Prime Minister’s party has long embraced an agenda to tighten the existing regulations on the gambling industry. Last year, the PNL announced that eliminating gambling advertisements was one of its main legislative proposals for the autumn parliamentary session.
