REGULATORY REFORM IN ROMANIA
Tightening in all directions BLACK MARKET CRACKDOWNS AND ADVERTISING CURBS? ROMANIA’S GAMBLING MARKET HAS IT ALL AS ANDREI COSMA AND ADELA NUTA REPORT
T he Romanian gambling sector is undergoing one of its most assertive overhauls since the 2015 framework, with policy and enforcement converging in the final stretch of 2025. A reset in regulatory leadership at the National Office for Gambling (ONJN) in April 2025 has been followed by a visibly tougher positioning: repeated blacklist decisions against unlicensed sites, culminating this autumn with the inclusion of crypto-based prediction market Polymarket after a surge of election-driven activity, and public messaging that illegal “counterparty betting” (to be read as exchange betting) will be treated as regulated gambling requiring full authorization. These steps, taken through formal ONJN decisions and communicated alongside a broader program of compliance actions, signal a shift from sporadic takedowns to sustained market-cleansing backed by legal process.
Law no. 141/2025 introduced mid-year amendments affecting a variety of new obligations for B2B providers, while the audiovisual regulator refined the advertising guardrails in 2025, notably by banning celebrity/influencer endorsements of gambling across TV, radio and social media. At the municipal and parliamentary levels, fresh proposals would push the perimeter further: Bucharest has tabled measures to remove gambling publicity from city-controlled outdoor assets from 1 January 2026, and cross-party initiatives now on the docket would raise the participation age to 21 and curb most daytime online advertising (if it can be somehow accepted that online works according to a linear schedule), aligning rhetoric on public health with enforceable rules. Together, these strands depict a maturing regime that is simultaneously narrowing the space for unauthorized operators and recalibrating exposure to marketing, with compliance expectations rising across B2C and B2B layers alike.
In parallel, the legislative and policy pipeline has accelerated.
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IMGL MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2025
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