Oficiului Național pentru Jocuri de Noroc (ONJN) Licensed Online Casinos and information on Romania Regulatory Body 2023

Overview

The Oficiului Național pentru Jocuri de Noroc or simply the ONJN was established back in 2013. Since its beginnings, the Romanian gambling regulatory body has been operating under the Romanian Ministry of Public Finance. One of the main reasons why the Romanian Government founded the ONJN was to allow the country to administer gambling activities in a safe and responsible manner. The ONJN is the very first regulatory entity of this kind in Romania that is solely responsible for overseeing and regulating gambling-related services and products. 

The ONJN is also tasked with issuing remote gaming licenses to locally-operating gambling companies. In addition, the Romanian Regulatory Body also monitors and authorizes all different forms of online gambling activities available to Romanian residents, including:

• Online Casinos
• Online Sports Betting
• Online Poker
• Online Bingo

At the same time, lotteries are not monitored by the ONJN as this is the responsibility of the Romanian National Lottery that holds a lottery monopoly in the country. Apart from issuing remote gaming licenses to local and international gambling operators, the Oficiului Național pentru Jocuri de Noroc is also tasked with regulating and overseeing most land-based gambling activities, implementing all the different principles related to fostering responsible gambling, protecting player rights and vulnerable groups, and combating criminal activities such as money laundering and identity theft.

The Romanian Regulatory Body issues licenses for different types of gambling activities, including fixed-odds betting, casino gambling, gambling activities at poker clubs, slot machines, bingo activities at bingo rooms, bingo activities organized through television, temporary gaming activities at public places, such as bingo halls, remote gambling activities, remote sports betting, and more.

An ONJN Class I Type 1 license must be obtained in order for a gambling website to be able to provide gambling services and products to Romanian residents. New applicants can only get a temporary license (Class I Type 1) valid for one year, followed by a more permanent license that is valid for ten years (Class I Type 2). In addition to operators, software platform providers, and partners' promotion companies also require valid licenses issued by the ONJN. Nevertheless, the license, in this case, is a Class II license which slightly differs from Class I licenses. The Romanian Regulatory Body also issues Class 2 licenses to supplier companies and software providers that want to work in the Romanian iGaming scene. Class 3 licenses are only issued to the National Romanian Lottery.

As expected, gambling operators must pay specific fees to obtain a license, abide by Romanian gambling legislation, and provide gambling services and products that comply with the local gambling legislature. There are a number of technical and operational requirements that must be satisfied in order to submit an application for an ONJN gambling license. More specifically, all new applicants need to have their main server based in the country, European Union, or any EEA member state. 

Licensed online gambling operators can only work with partners which have been issued Class 2 licenses. They also need to prove that their casino software and all casino games have been tested for fairness by a company that is properly licensed. Once operators meet all the requirements, the official licensing process starts.