Romania Lays Path to Settle Gambling ad Reforms By Early 2026
At the close of 2025, the Senate of Romania authorised a series of legislative propositions to allow marketing reforms to be evaluated by the Chamber of Deputies and associate committees.
The choice was authorised to allow Parliament to choose new marketing rules/legislation by early 2026. A fractious problem in which the Senate has actually gotten wide variety propositions from multiple parties.
Among the key steps under conversation are the prohibition of street-level betting advertising, more stringent time-based limitations on online and broadcast promos, and the positioning of betting marketing standards with more comprehensive consumer-protection and digital-media laws.
The Chamber of Deputies will take on deliberations, with arguments anticipated to resume once the next parliamentary sessions open in February. The reforms are deemed the very first stage of a larger overhaul of Romania's Law on Games of Chance, a regulative framework that has actually come under installing scrutiny following a series of high-profile governance failures in 2025.
Proposed procedures consist of raising the national gaming age from 18 to 21, sent by the Liberal Party under a legal mandate titled "Protecting the Age of Innocence."
Elsewhere, union member Save Romania Union (USR) has backed an extensive bundle of changes calling for a ban on untargeted advertising and sports sponsorships, alongside limitations on online betting promos between 06:00 and 00:00.
The USR continues to promote for the complete overhaul of the sector, including the dismantling of ONJN, the National Gambling Office of Romania, following what it refers to as "systemic governance and auditing failures that have lost all trust in the regulator".
Additional propositions focus on presenting local-authority approvals for betting licences and harmonising the national self-exclusion system across online and land-based venues, a regulation that ONJN intends to complete by the very first half of 2026.
The ONJN preserves its position as Romania's main regulatory authority for betting. Last week, President Vlad Soare released a program and open letter detailing ONJN's essential goals for 2026, the heightened enforcement of existing laws and the modernisation of core regulatory systems.
Soare highlighted that the regulator had actually made significant development in enhancing transparency and responsibility in 2025 but conceded that it remains uncertain whether such measures would ease political stress and anxieties around gambling oversight.
Acknowledging the ongoing examination, Soare repeated his assistance for a comprehensive reform of Romania's betting legislation, advising policymakers to team up on a "coherent and effective framework" to change what he explained as "an ethically outdated Gambling Law."
2026: Pivotal Moment
Cosmina Simion -WH Simion & Partners
Legal observers concur that the months ahead will be pivotal in shaping Romania's long-term betting policy. There is growing consensus that 2026 could mark a turning point in the modernisation of the marketplace.
However the federal government needs to pick its regulative principals/priorities as gambling licences require a sense of stability and sustainability that has been disregarded due to continuous modifications because 2018.
Commenting on the developments, Cosmina Simion, Managing Partner at WH Simion & Partners, said: "Romania is going into a stage of regulative consolidation in the gambling sector, including in relation to marketing rules. The Senate's choice on street and public advertising shows a broader effort to enhance the legal framework and introduce more steps focused on player protection.