Romania, changes in sight for the law on gambling

A recent bill is causing serious concern to the gambling industry. The planned changes aim to address Romania's growing budget deficit and the need to tackle tax evasion, discourage unauthorized gambling activities and strengthen gambling regulations.

1. The draft introduces the requirement for online gambling operators to be companies registered in Romania. Many of the gambling operators currently licensed and operating in Romania are not based in Romania. If the draft is passed into law in its current form, only Romanian companies will be able to apply for a Class I gambling licence, a measure intended to ensure that profits made by these online gambling operators are also taxed in Romania.

According to the draft, existing operators already licensed in Romania as gambling operators will be required to set up a local (Romanian) entity within six months after the law comes into force. The operator must notify the Romanian National Gambling Office ( NOG ) to have registered a Romanian company within this six-month period, subject to revocation of the license. However, given that the license is nominal, it is not clear how the license issued in the name of the operator will be transferred to the new Romanian company.

1. In the same note, the Project requires that the communication systems and central computer systems of online gambling operators are located on Romanian territory. (Under current legislation, such a central IT system and platform can be located in the territory of any other EEA State). 
2. The derogation which allows the joint organization of games of chance between an authorized gaming operator and one or more other operators (subject to a contract) will be repealed.
3. Responsible gaming fees payable by gambling industry operators are set to increase significantly: for example, the responsible gaming fee for online gambling operators will increase from €5.000 to €200.000 per year. year while branch II licensees (i.e. companies providing ancillary services to gambling, such as software development, marketing, payment processing, audit or certification, hosting services, etc. ) will pay €15.000 a year (compared to the current €1.000 a year). 
4. The level of security that gambling operators will have to ensure will also increase significantly: for example, for online gambling (excluding online casino games), the level of security will increase to €2 million ( from the current 100.000 euros), and for online casinos games at 5 million euros (from the current 250.000 euros). Traditional gambling operators will also be required to increase the level of security (ie €1 million for traditional/land-based gambling and €3 million for land-based casinos).
5. An increase in licensing fees is also envisaged in the draft law. For online gambling operators, for example, the Project provides for a fixed tax of 300.000 euros.
7. Other administrative fees will also increase slightly: for example, for an application for a license for an online gambling operator, the document analysis fee will increase to €3.500 (from €3.000) while the licensing fee will increase to 10.500 euros per license (from the current 9.500 euros per licence).