ONJN, Romania's National Office for Gambling, has actually set out its program for 2026 targeted at reinforcing compliance enforcement and bring back regulatory standards throughout the marketplace.
Vlad Soare: ONJN
The goals of the programme have been vowed by ONJN President Vlad-Cristian Soare, who has actually positioned the method as a necessary action to restore trust and confidence in a regulator whose governance has come under continual criticism.
Soare assumed leadership of ONJN in May 2025, following the resignation of previous president Gabriel Gheorghe, who stepped down amid examination over a series of audit failures. The high-profile failings were connected to regulatory shortcomings that apparently left close to EUR1bn in tax and authorisation costs uncollected.
Assessing the regulator's actions in 2025, Soare described the year as a "non-linear and uneasy course", but one that however provided "concrete progress in the battle against illegal gambling and towards greater transparency".
Operating under extreme political analysis, Soare specified that ONJN had delivered "concrete accomplishments", mainly through enhanced enforcement activity. Actions consisted of the confiscation of more than 200 gaming makers, the blacklisting of over 200 unlawful gaming websites, and the filing of 48 criminal complaints linked to monetary criminal activity and unlicensed operations.
Among the brand-new efforts highlighted was the launch of ONJN's very first WhatsApp reporting channel, making it possible for members of the general public to inform of suspected unlawful video gaming makers 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 stay ONJN's main concern in 2026, supported by the planned Q1 rollout of two significant systems: a merged National Self-Exclusion scheme covering both retail and online betting, and a geolocation-based QR system incorporated into the regulator's central register.
"Any person can now confirm where gaming devices are located, who owns them and whether they are legal," Soare composed.
On gamer safeguards, ONJN will manage a new single self-exclusion process, managed solely by the regulator. The procedure will introduce clear exclusion durations, a defined difference in between account closure and self-exclusion, and a "cool-off" stage preventing instant re-entry.
Further technical upgrades will include automated monitoring of transactions, bonuses and operator statements to find black-market activity, along with the launch of a new electronic document platform. The latter will allow all operator interactions with ONJN to occur completely online, supported by an upgraded website and a dedicated petitions portal.
ONJN desires modernisation
Knowledgeable about the political scrutiny surrounding betting, Soare has supported the overhaul of Romania's Law on Games of Chance. Soare argues that authorities should comply to create a "coherent and efficient legislative framework" to change what he referred to as "a morally out-of-date Gambling Law".
End-of-year procedures saw 20 legal proposals submitted to Parliament, calling for sweeping changes to the governance of betting. Revisions under the new four-party "pro-Europe" coalition saw the Liberal Party (PNL) require Romania's gambling age to be raised to 21, submitted under the mandate of "protecting the age of innocence".
Elsewhere, coalition member Save Romania Union (USR) submitted a series of amendments calling for a ban on untargeted advertising and sports sponsorships. USR has actually maintained that the overhaul of Romanian gaming guideline must consist of the disbanding of ONJN, pointing out a loss of rely on its governance across Romanian public institutions.
Back to institutional accountability
Soare has actually acknowledged that 2026 will be a decisive year for ONJN, with the regulator's future set to be formed by ongoing political and regulative procedures. He has actually openly identified that governance reforms, legislative outcomes and parliamentary analysis will ultimately figure out the authority's long-term function within Romania's gaming structure.
Despite this unpredictability, ONJN has repeated its obligation to continue governing Romania's gaming market throughout 2026, preserving enforcement, licensing oversight and customer defense procedures as structural reforms are disputed at a political level.
As part of this commitment, the regulator has actually earmarked EUR5m in financing for 2026 to support regional authorities and civil societies in taking on issue betting through community-driven prevention, education and intervention efforts. The program represents ONJN's first massive, structured financial investment in harm-reduction measures provided by regional authorities.