Romania remote gambling licence: requirements, fees, timing and register check

Quick facts

What does a Romanian licence cover, and what does it not?

Gambling in Romania is a state monopoly administered by ONJN, which grants licences and yearly authorisations under Emergency Ordinance 77/2009. A Class 1 licence with its authorisation is what an operator needs to offer remote gambling to players in Romania. It is a national licence with no rights in other markets.

Romania licenses the supply chain too. Class 2 licensees may not serve operators that offer gambling to Romania without a Class 1 licence, and software, platform and payment licensees must run their own geolocation and report to ONJN each month (Law 141/2025). Since 18 December 2025 the ban applies where the unlicensed site has content in Romanian or an international language and accepts deposits and withdrawals (Law 239/2025).

Which licence class do you need?

• Class 1 (B2C). For remote operators with a direct contract with the player: online casino games, fixed-odds and pool betting, betting exchanges, bingo and keno.
• Class 2 (B2B). One licence per category: platform management and hosting, ancillary services, payment processors, gambling software producers and distributors, affiliates, certifiers, auditors and conformity-assessment bodies.
• Licence and authorisation. The licence runs for ten years. Operating also needs an exploitation authorisation, valid for one year and paid in advance (OUG 77/2009, art. 12).

What does a Romanian licence cost?

Amounts from OUG 77/2009 and its annex, as amended by OUG 82/2023 and Law 141/2025. Each authorisation application costs a further €250, as does each integration or recertification of an online game.

• Three annual charges, not one. Guides often quote one of them as "the licence cost". A Class 1 operator pays at least €1,280,000 a year across the three before any deposit tax (our arithmetic).
• Whether the €15,000 contribution is per company or per Class 2 licence is read differently by the statute and by practitioners; ask ONJN before budgeting several categories.

How is remote gambling taxed in Romania?

• Authorisation tax. From 1 August 2025, 30% of gambling revenue (stakes less winnings), at least €480,000 a year; it was 21% with a €400,000 minimum from October 2023 (Law 141/2025; OUG 82/2023).
• Deposit tax. Online organisers also pay 2% each month on the participation fees collected, declared by the 25th of the following month (OUG 114/2018, art. 53). Its base is money paid in, not revenue, so it cannot be estimated from a GGR forecast.
• Advertising tax. 5% of the value of billboard, street and television advertising contracts, which must be notified to ONJN within five working days (OUG 77/2009, art. 1²).

How long does a Romanian licence take?

By statute, applications for a licence or an authorisation are decided within 30 days of complete documentation (OUG 77/2009, art. 1(4)). OUG 7/2026 repealed the rule that let the licence and the authorisation be requested together; ONJN had not said by 27 October 2026 how that applies to remote applicants.

What company and capital does Romania require?

• Company. A Romanian company, or a company from an EU or EEA state or Switzerland with a permanent establishment in Romania to which all gambling revenue is attributed (art. 1(2)). Organising gambling must be its main object of activity.
• Representative and bank. A foreign organiser appoints an authorised representative in Romania, and players' money is held in an account at a bank in Romania.
• Share capital. At least RON 1,000,000 paid up for online gambling (annex, point 2.H).
• Guarantee. From 1 January 2025, €2,000,000 for online gambling other than casino and €5,000,000 for online casino, regardless of revenue (art. 29(8)).

Which rules catch operators most often?

• The deposit tax is left out of most licence-cost guides.
• Suppliers carry enforcement duties. A Class 2 platform, software or payment licensee that serves an unlicensed operator reachable from Romania risks its licence.
• Self-exclusion. ONJN keeps a national database of self-excluded people; the statutory duty to refuse them is written for access to gambling premises (art. 15¹).
• Local rules for premises. OUG 7/2026 made land-based gambling depend on a local council authorisation; it does not add a local authorisation for remote gambling.

How do you verify a Romanian licence?

ONJN publishes lists of Class 1 and Class 2 licensees on its website. On 27 October 2026 the site answered automated requests with a browser check, so Kompanion has not read or imported the lists. To verify a licence, open the list in a browser, find the company and check the licence number, the class and the domain against the site you are looking at, or ask us to check it by hand.

How does Romania compare with other licences?

What this page does not cover yet

Technical certification and server requirements, AML duties, player-winnings tax, the land-based regime and the pending bills on advertising hours and a minimum age of 21. They are added after review.

Sources

• OUG 77/2009, consolidated to 21 January 2026; the Portal Legislativ refused connections on 27 October 2026, so the text was read from the archived copy and checked against the amending acts.
• OUG 82/2023, Law 141/2025, Law 239/2025 and OUG 7/2026, read 27 October 2026.
• OUG 114/2018, article 53, read 27 October 2026.
• ONJN licensee lists: not read, see above.

Next review: monthly, and when the Portal Legislativ and ONJN lists can be read again. Found an error? Report a correction.