CasinoDaddy reported that data from Romania’s National Office for Gambling (ONJN) showed gambling tax revenue fell 17% in 2024 to approximately €689 million. The publication said the timing of the decline aligned with earlier tax increases, while noting that multiple factors could account for the result.
The Romanian Remote Gambling Operators Association (AOJND) has raised concerns that further increases in taxes on licensed online operators could weaken the regulated market, according to CasinoDaddy. The association said operators contribute up to 30% of gross gaming revenue through tax mechanisms and argued that additional costs could make legal platforms less competitive.
Concerns over unlicensed sites
CasinoDaddy reported that an association study found that 14% of Romanian players said they had used unlicensed gambling sites. The report said those sites could appeal to players because they offer fewer restrictions and more generous promotions than regulated operators.
According to the publication, licensed operators in Romania are subject to requirements including self-exclusion tools, spending limits and income verification. AOJND has argued that a tax approach that increases costs for licensed operators without addressing offshore competition could affect revenue collection and consumer protection. The association has called for a tax framework that maintains regulatory oversight while allowing licensed operators to compete with unlicensed rivals.
Court of Auditors report
Separately, iGaming Business reported that Romania’s Court of Auditors published a report on 21 February examining ONJN’s supervision of online gambling operators. The report said ONJN had not met its statutory monitoring and control duties for remote gambling activity and that the auditor was considering notifying Romania’s criminal prosecution bodies.
According to iGaming Business’s account of the report, the findings were linked primarily to ONJN’s failure to enforce a requirement for remote access to licensed operators’ systems. The report said this created potential errors in authorisation-fee collections, including a discrepancy between taxation and actual return-to-player levels.
The report also said ONJN had not examined the implications of Malta’s 2021 reduction in return-to-player requirements. It identified unpaid tax differences of more than 78 million lei for 2022 and 2023 and cited a potential difference in undeclared authorisation fees of up to 4.8 billion lei between 2019 and 2023. iGaming Business reported that the Court of Auditors issued recommendations intended to address the deviations identified, including measures to update operational procedures and ensure the regulator can remotely access online gambling servers located in Romania.
Sources: CasinoDaddy, iGaming Business and SiGMA News.
Petra Vanhoof has spent the better part of a decade following the shifting tides of gambling regulation across Europe and beyond. She came up through the compliance side of the industry before pivoting to writing, which gives her a grounded, no-nonsense perspective on the rules, loopholes, and political maneuvering that shape how operators actually do business. She is particularly drawn to the gap between what regulators say and what the market ends up doing in response.