Romania

How the market works

Romania restructured its online regime in 2015, moving from foreign-licensed supply to a national framework with Class 1 licences for operators and Class 2 licences for the businesses behind them. Class 2 is unusually wide: it covers platform and game suppliers, payment processors, and also affiliates and media agencies that promote gambling to Romanian customers.

That affiliate licensing requirement is the detail Romania is best known for in the industry. An affiliate publishing Romanian-facing content for a licensed operator needs its own authorisation, and the published list of Class 2 holders is checked as a matter of routine in affiliate compliance work.

Fees and tax provisions have been revised repeatedly, and the treatment of land-based venues and of advertising has changed more than once in recent years. Romania should be treated as a market whose framework is stable but whose fiscal terms move frequently.

Who regulates it

Oficiul Național pentru Jocuri de Noroc (ONJN), based in Bucharest and operating under Emergency Ordinance 77/2009, as amended. The Romanian office, one of the few regulators that licenses affiliates as well as operators and suppliers.

Licence types issued

• Class 1 licence (operator)
• Class 2 licence (supplier and affiliate)

Full profile of the ONJN