Romania proposes more local control over gambling venues
The government plans to give local authorities the power to decide whether to allow gambling venues.
Romania.- The new national coalition government is considering giving local authorities more control over gambling venues in their jurisdictions. Proposals presented by minister for public development and administration Cseke Attila would allow city and town halls to decide whether to authorise or refuse licences for venues.
The local authorities would also be able to dictate conditions such as where gambling venues can be located. They would be able to apply their own local annual gambling tax. Attila has suggested that local government would have complete freedom to decide the rate, with no limit to be imposed by central government, and the funds would stay in each respective area.
The proposed measure comes after the previous government passed a measure to ban gambling in small rural towns in April 2024. It would form part of a wider programme drawn up by the new Social Democrat coalition in a bid to level the economic chasm between cities and rural areas. The government wants to reward jurisdictions that generate new sources of revenue.
“Local communities should have the right to decide if they want gambling – and if so, benefit from it directly,” Attila said.
However, politicians continue to raise concerns about problem gambling. The USR continues to call for reforms in the sector, including the replacement of the Romanian gambling regulator, the ONJN. It also wants to limit gambling spending to 10 per cent of a player’s income, which would be monitored by the national tax authority ANAF.
The proposals follow controversy around the role of the Romanian gambling regulator after a Court of Accounts (CCR) audit of the ONJN found serious irregularities in its supervision of gambling licences, including its collection of authorisation fees and gambling tax. The regulator was found to have failed to enforce a legal requirement to gain remote access to online gambling licensees’ systems, which prevented it from being able to verify transaction data.
For now, the government is advancing with proposals for a new gambling self-exclusion system in Romania, and the National Audiovisual Council (CNA) has prohibited the use of celebrities in gambling advertisements across television, radio, and online platforms. The government is consulting on gambling tax reforms that propose a revised progressive tax rate on player winnings.
