Romania’s gambling crackdown pushes land-based operators toward collapse

The Romanian gambling industry is increasingly facing an uncertain future, due in part to ongoing regulatory changes which are putting additional stress on land-based operators. Concern is growing for the future of the slot hall industry in Romania as a result of the number of slot machines in the country having dropped from approximately 80,000 machines two years ago to an estimated 36,000 machines today.

Optimistically, the number of slot machines operating in Romania is predicted by industry sources to decline further to a range of between 15,000 and 20,000 machines by the end of this calendar year.

While there are some potential indications that gaming sites may close in the future, all operators who have a valid license from the Romania’s National Office for Gambling (ONJN) are currently operating under a temporary licence while an application is being processed for a permanent licence.

Andrei Frimescu, director of communications at trade body Romslot, says:

It has effectively become a Catch-22. We hold a valid national authorisation, but we cannot operate without a local permit. Yet in order to obtain the new local authorisation, we need that local permit and, in many cases, local authorities are not issuing them, so the industry is blocked.

The first test of this system will occur when each operator’s annual authorisation expires.

After this happens, the municipality where each operator operates will be able to determine whether or not to grant an operator permission to continue to operate. Most Romanian municipalities have not developed an authorisation process or procedure to evaluate whether operators should be granted permission to operate, and the government has projected that up to 200 municipalities may ultimately prohibit gambling.

As a result, industry representatives argue that this situation has created a stalemate for operators, both legally and practically.

Both operators and legal counsel have cautioned that if this situation continues, Romania could find itself with a fragmented regulatory framework in which individual municipalities each establish their own regulations governing gambling.

With land-based gaming’s future increasingly uncertain, many operators are now turning to online gaming and omnichannel solutions.