Romania Convenes Advisory Council for Betting Reform

Romania's betting regulator, the National Betting Office (ONJN), has convened its Advisory Council at the new stage of its reform programme. The meeting, scheduled for 18 November, will discuss addiction treatment, self-exclusion systems, illegal online betting and the record management of betting licences.

The agency says the ongoing legal review was launched because of outdated provisions and inconsistencies in the legislation. No timeline has been announced, but the meeting indicates which areas will be given priority. ONJN has said that a working group has been tasked with analysing and harmonising the legislation.

The review follows an audit by the Romanian Court of Accounts covering 2019 to 2023. The audit found serious shortcomings in licence supervision, tax verification and the collection of licensing fees. The reported regulatory obligations are estimated at between 630 million and 900 million euros. Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan dismissed the former president, Vlad-Cristian Soare, but no reason was given. Valentin-Ioan Tomescu, appointed as the new president in August, has set digitalisation, staffing and addiction treatment as the agency's priorities.

The council will also focus on the national addiction treatment programme, the consistent implementation of self-exclusion measures, the fight against unlicensed online betting and transaction records at physical venues. Future online betting, fixed-odds betting and retail betting regulation will also be discussed. Corruption investigations involving some former senior officials of the agency are adding to the debate over accountability, and these cases are still before the courts.