Romania
and approved through the government’s Decision No. 823/2011 which amended the government’s Decision No. 870/2009.
The online licensing conditions included certain requirements such as the obligation to set up a Romanian company and to hold directly or indirectly a Romanian offline licence, which were either in breach of the TFUE principle of free movement of services or were raising completion concerns.
All these circumstances led to a de facto standstill peri- od for the Romanian online sector in which there was no licensed operator.
At the end of last year a new amendment package was introduced to the gambling legislation through GEO 92/2014 which amends and supplements GEO 77/2009, the latter being the primary piece of legislation in the gaming industry.
The new regulation introduces the ‘Black List’ concept which
will contain all operators (along with all their TLDs) that are offering games to Romanian online players without a licence.
This legislative act is set to change the playing field of the online gaming sector even more. The new rules entered into force on February 13 2015 and the new leg- islation removes many of the former barriers for the entry on the Romanian market. For instance, online operators based in EU/EEA or the Swiss Confederation will now be able to apply for a Romanian licence with- out being required to set up a Romanian legal entity for such purpose. Also the condition of holding directly or indirectly an offline licence was removed and the Romanian authorities will accept the location of the operators’ central servers in any EU/EEA country or in the Swiss Confederation as long as there will be a mirror and a safe server located on the Romanian soil.
Among the other important novelties for the gambling industry is the express recognition of the betting exchange as a permitted gambling activity in Romania.
There are three types of betting permitting – landbased and remote: 1) Mutual betting, 2) fixed odd betting and 3) counterpart betting. Bingo and Keno games are also permitted remotely.
The new regulation introduces the ‘Black List’ concept which will contain all operators (along with all their TLDs) that are offering games to Romanian online play- ers without a licence. This means ISPs will block Romanian players from accessing their websites whilst the operator cannot apply for a licence unless it meets the requirements for the delisting – which will be
8 4
THE NEW LICENSING FEE FOR ONLINE GAMBLING Romanian turnover
Less than €500,000 / per year €500,001-€1m / per year €1,000,001 - €5m / per year €5,00,001 - €10m / per year More than €10,000,001 / per year
defined through the secondary legislation.
Meanwhile taxation has also been amended and opera- tors will now pay an authorisation fee of 16 percent on the GGR and online operators are no longer obliged to withhold taxes on players’ winnings. Players now have to declare their winnings and pay taxes directly to the authorities. Previously players had a 25 percent income tax rate enforced. This is now one percent for all play- ers’ revenues below €15,000, 16 percent for revenues higher than €15,000 but less than €100,000 and 25 per- cent for revenues higher than €100,000.
Licence fee €6,000
€24,000 €60,000 €96,000 €120,000
Online operators will also have to pay an annual tax of €5,000 for the Responsible Gambling Foundation
Despite the desire to close out operators without Romanian licenses there has been little progress and bettors can use international sites with relative ease.
Some suggest there are currently around 350 English language sportbooks which welcome wagering from Romania. Some 124 sites have language support in Romanian. Most domestic sites are the only ones offer- ing wagers in Romanian currency
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