Romania's ONJN Convenes Consultative Council on 18 November as Gambling Law Review Gains an Agenda

^{The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest. Romania's gambling regulator has called its Consultative Council to discuss reform on 18 November. (Photo: Crislia / Wikimedia Commons)}

Romania's gambling regulator has called its Consultative Council to meet on 18 November, giving its review of national gambling legislation a first concrete agenda. The Oficiul Național pentru Jocuri de Noroc (ONJN) said in a press release dated 6 November that the meeting will start at 11:00 and marks the start of a framework for consultation and dialogue.

The announcement follows the review of the country's gambling legislation that the ONJN launched on 30 October. No deadline has been set for completing that overhaul, and the regulator has not published a draft, a list of working group members or a timetable for the process.

What Is on the Agenda

According to the ONJN, discussions will cover the development of a national programme for treating gambling addiction, the legislative changes needed in the area and the effects of new rules on how gambling is organised and operated.

The council will also look at applying the self-exclusion procedure uniformly, combating the online black market and the ways player transactions are recorded in traditional gambling venues. The release does not say which reporting systems or extra obligations could follow.

Consultations will also address drafting and applying a framework regulation for online activity, fixed-odds betting and traditional gambling. The ONJN said it wants to examine existing problems from several perspectives and find solutions that can become coherent legislative and administrative measures.

How the Review Began

On 30 October, the ONJN said its president had changed the make-up of the working group that drafts regulatory acts for the sector. The group's mandate is to analyse and harmonise existing legislation, with the stated aim of "bringing order to the entire regulatory framework".

The regulator described the existing approach as insufficient, saying that amending rules one point at a time whenever problems appear is not enough and that an integrated approach is needed. It wants what it calls a new legislative architecture that is clear, predictable and workable for both operators and the regulator.

The review is the first legislative project under ONJN president Valentin-Ioan Tomescu, who took over the regulator in August. The main law remains Emergency Ordinance 77/2009, which has governed the Romanian market for more than 15 years and has been amended repeatedly since.

Why It Matters for Operators

The ONJN said the topics cover both the functioning and regulation of the market and the protection of participants, as well as action against activity carried on outside the legal framework.

Suppliers and operators active in Romania will watch the council meeting closely, given the breadth of the topics. Companies such as 3 Oaks Gaming, which has already made moves in Romania and Georgia, have a stake in how licensing, supervision and reporting rules develop.

The ONJN has not said whether the result will be a new gambling law or a consolidated rewrite of the existing ordinance. Until it publishes a draft, the current rules stay in force, and the meeting on 18 November is the first visible step toward one.