Romanian municipalities seek local control over gambling venues
City mayors want the power to impose local taxes on gambling venues.
Romania.- Municipal mayors are supporting a new draft bill that would allow local control and taxation over gambling in Romania. The proposal is seen as symptomatic of the fallout from a damning audit of the national gambling regulator, the ONJN earlier in the year.
Currently, gambling operators are licensed at the national level and local councils are limited to an advisory role on the granting of licences for physical venues in their jurisdictions. However, the new proposal introduced by the Ministry for Development would introduce zoning authorisations, under which municipal governments would decide where to allow gambling venues.
Local authorities would be able to specify areas where gambling venues would be prohibited on urban planning or public safety and health grounds. The bill would also allow local authorities to charge gambling taxes intended to compensate for the social costs of the activity. The funds would go to social services, community initiatives and law enforcement.
Nelu Popa, the mayor of Reșița, has billed the proposal as response to the ONJN’s failure to enforce regulations and tax collection. He claimed the regulator’s lack of oversight had allowed betting shops and gaming arcades to multiply with the current rules.
Last year, Romania passed legislation to ban gambling venues in small towns but the bill came up against a legal challenge. Since then, the scrutiny of the ONJN and political changes have led to the appointment of Vlad-Cristian Soare to replace Gheorghe-Gabriel Gheorghe as president of the regulator. Meanwhile, a new coalition government has published draft plans to revise the framework for gambling tax in Romania following the appointment of Ilie Bolojan as prime minister.
Call for more local control over gambling have been seen elsewhere. Yesterday, British prime minister Keir Starmer has responded to calls from local government authorities for more powers to intervene in planning applications for gambling venues.
