Is online gambling legal in Romania?

Legal overview

Romania regulates gambling under Government Emergency Ordinance No. 77/2009 on the organisation and operation of gambling, supervised by the National Gambling Office (ONJN). Remote gambling is licensed: companies that offer games directly to players, including online casino, slots, poker, sports betting and lotteries, need a Class I licence from ONJN, while suppliers of software, equipment and related services need a Class II licence. Unlicensed companies may not carry out gambling activities, and since April 2024 it has also been prohibited to supply gambling-related services to entities without a Class I licence that accept players from Romania.

Licensed operators must offer player protection tools such as self-exclusion, deposit and play limits and risk warnings. ONJN keeps a public register of licensed operators and a blacklist of domains that offer gambling to people in Romania without a Romanian licence. Domains are added by ONJN decisions, internet providers must prevent access to listed sites from Romania, and payment processors must suspend related transactions. A single decision in June 2026 added about 800 sites, according to the consumer group InfoCons.

The minimum age for gambling is currently 18. In February 2026 the Senate, as first chamber, voted to raise it to 21 and to ban audio-visual gambling advertising between 06:00 and 24:00, but both bills were still awaiting a final vote in the Chamber of Deputies in mid-2026. Separately, an emergency ordinance adopted in February 2026 requires gambling operators to obtain authorisation from local authorities as well as the national licence, and a March 2026 draft proposed unified self-exclusion rules for online and land-based venues.