ONJN President Pledges Go Back To Accountability For Romania Gambling In 2026
ONJN, Romania's National Office for Gambling, has set out its programme for 2026 focused on strengthening compliance enforcement and restoring regulative standards across the marketplace.
Vlad Soare: ONJN
The objectives of the programme have been vowed by ONJN President Vlad-Cristian Soare, who has positioned the strategy as an essential action to restore trust and self-confidence in a regulator whose governance has actually come under sustained criticism.
Soare assumed leadership of ONJN in May 2025, following the resignation of former president Gabriel Gheorghe, who stepped down amidst scrutiny over a series of audit failures. The prominent failings were connected to regulative shortcomings that apparently left close to EUR1bn in tax and authorisation fees uncollected.
Reflecting on the regulator's actions in 2025, Soare explained the year as a "non-linear and uncomfortable path", but one that nonetheless delivered "tangible progress in the battle versus unlawful betting and towards higher openness".
Operating under extreme political examination, Soare specified that ONJN had delivered "concrete accomplishments", primarily through improved enforcement activity. Actions consisted of the confiscation of more than 200 gaming devices, the blacklisting of over 200 illegal gambling sites, and the filing of 48 criminal complaints linked to monetary crime and unlicensed operations.
Among the new efforts highlighted was the launch of ONJN's first WhatsApp reporting channel, allowing members of the general public to notify of thought prohibited gaming machines and reinforce land-based enforcement. In the digital sector, ONJN reported a 98% takedown rate for illegal gambling content served to Romanian audiences across platforms run by Meta, Google and TikTok.
Enforcement will remain ONJN's central concern in 2026, supported by the planned Q1 rollout of 2 major systems: a merged National Self-Exclusion plan covering both retail and online betting, and a geolocation-based QR system incorporated into the regulator's main register.
"Any resident can now verify where video gaming devices are located, who owns them and whether they are legal," Soare wrote.
On player safeguards, ONJN will handle a new single self-exclusion procedure, managed solely by the regulator. The procedure will present clear exemption periods, a defined difference in between account closure and self-exclusion, and a "cool-off" stage preventing instant re-entry.
Further technical upgrades will consist of automated monitoring of transactions, benefits and operator declarations to detect black-market activity, together with the launch of a brand-new electronic file platform. The latter will enable all operator interactions with ONJN to occur totally online, supported by a redesigned website and a dedicated petitions website.
ONJN wants modernisation
Aware of the political analysis surrounding gambling, Soare has supported the overhaul of Romania's Law on Games of Chance. Soare argues that authorities should cooperate to develop a "coherent and efficient legal framework" to replace what he described as "an ethically outdated Gambling Law".
End-of-year proceedings saw 20 legislative proposals sent to Parliament, calling for sweeping modifications to the governance of gambling. Revisions under the new four-party "pro-Europe" union saw the Liberal Party (PNL) require Romania's betting age to be raised to 21, submitted under the mandate of "safeguarding the age of innocence".
Elsewhere, coalition member Save Romania Union (USR) submitted a series of modifications calling for a ban on untargeted advertising and sports sponsorships. USR has preserved that the overhaul of Romanian betting regulation need to include the disbanding of ONJN, citing a loss of trust in its governance across Romanian public institutions.
Back to institutional accountability
Soare has acknowledged that 2026 will be a definitive year for ONJN, with the regulator's future set to be shaped by continuous political and regulative procedures. He has freely acknowledged that governance reforms, legislative outcomes and parliamentary scrutiny will eventually figure out the authority's long-term role within Romania's gambling structure.
Despite this uncertainty, ONJN has reiterated its obligation to continue governing Romania's gambling market throughout 2026, preserving enforcement, licensing oversight and consumer protection steps as structural reforms are discussed at a political level.
As part of this dedication, the regulator has actually earmarked EUR5m in funding for 2026 to support regional authorities and civil societies in dealing with problem betting through community-driven prevention, education and intervention initiatives. The represents ONJN's very first large-scale, structured financial investment in harm-reduction determines offered by local authorities.