Last Tuesday, the Romanian Senate unanimously adopted a legislative proposal whose aim is to amend the 2009 law regulating gambling offers, according to which the gambling license is granted based on the number of local inhabitants, proven by a certificate issued by the local public administration authority, in order to have a maximum of one point of sale for every 20.000 inhabitants.
The bill, now being examined by the Chamber of Deputies, provides that gaming rooms can be located solo on the outskirts of cities, at a maximum distance of 50 meters from the city border. The project provides that "the designated space is located no more than 50 m from the territorial limit of the city/municipality or municipality, including the municipality of Bucharest".
“The proposed space must not be located within or within 300 m of educational units and institutions, including their campuses, children's play areas, defined as any indoor or outdoor space intended for use by children , from parks, from cultural, artistic activities, health, social, religious cults and other similar institutions or in the delimited perimeter intended for them", we read in the text of the proposal.
Furthermore, the project also provides municipalities with a tool to approve the location of gaming halls, something that was missing in the current legislation. Therefore, the draft law provides that companies must have a site permit issued by local councils, and the procedure for obtaining it will be established by future methodological standards.
Furthermore, in localities with fewer than 5.000 inhabitants no license can be granted to operate gambling. This means that gaming halls will disappear from municipalities with fewer than 5.000 inhabitants.
In order to protect players from the risk of addiction and huge economic losses related to gambling, the maximum number of slot machines present in a single location and managed by the same economic operator is reduced from 75 to 20.
The pecuniary sanction foreseen for those who allow minors access to premises specialized in gambling constitutes a crime and is sanctioned for the first infringement with a fine of 100.000 to 200.000 lei, i.e. double the current amount. For the second violation the operator's gaming license is suspended for six months and for the third violation the license is canceled without the possibility of granting the license to the same operator for three years, as provided for in the draft regulatory act.
