Romania’s gambling regulator ONJN has opened applications for €5m in non-refundable grants under its “Conștient și Liber” (Aware and Free) national programme, the first funding call of this kind in the regulator’s history.
The application window opened on 20 April and closes on 11 May 2026. Selected projects are expected to begin from 3 August and run for a maximum of four months, concluding by the end of December.
Three Funding Lines
The total budget of RON 25.41m (€5m) is divided across three separate funding lines and sourced directly from ONJN’s own revenues under Romania’s Gambling Law (OUG 77/2009).
Line 1, worth €1.2m, is reserved exclusively for public authorities and covers the establishment, expansion or equipping of specialist gambling addiction treatment centres. Line 2, the largest allocation at €3.6m, is open to NGOs and other eligible applicants for projects in prevention, education, youth protection, treatment, counselling, digitalisation and responsible gambling promotion. Line 3 sets aside €200,000 for studies, research and impact analyses on gambling addiction. Individual grants are capped at €100,000 per project.
Applications are submitted through the UEFISCDI digital platform. Eligibility results are due on 15 May, with a challenge period running from 18 to 20 May. Independent evaluation runs from 27 May to 25 June. Final results are scheduled for 28 July, with contracts signed between 29 and 31 July.
First in ONJN’s History
ONJN President Vlad-Cristian Soare, who took over the regulator in May 2025, described the launch as a statutory obligation the organisation had never previously fulfilled.
“I promised that these projects would materialise. Despite all the obstacles in the past, the projects will exist and, most importantly, they will help vulnerable people. We are thus ensuring the first funding in the history of ONJN for this type of programme and, at the same time, the necessary regulatory framework has been created for funding in future years.” — Vlad-Cristian Soare, President, ONJN
Soare indicated a second round could follow in 2026 if the programme performs as expected.
The launch follows sustained criticism of ONJN’s governance. Soare’s predecessor, Gabriel Gheorghe, resigned in 2025 following audit failures that reportedly left close to €1bn in tax and authorisation fees uncollected. Since taking over, Soare has introduced mandatory geolocation for all gaming machines, a national self-exclusion system and a WhatsApp channel for public reporting of suspected illegal equipment. ONJN also reported a 98% takedown rate for unlicensed gambling content served to Romanian audiences across Meta, Google and TikTok platforms.
Regulatory and Legislative Context
The “Conștient și Liber” programme was put to public consultation in late 2025 and formalised through regulatory orders published in the Official Gazette in December. Its rollout was delayed in part by Romania’s 2026 state budget approval process, which ONJN identified as a legal prerequisite for opening the application window. Romania has been a consistent target for enforcement action against unlicensed operators, with 30 illegal websites blocked as recently as September 2025.
Romania’s broader regulatory environment has tightened considerably. Law 141/2025 raised the online gambling authorisation tax from 21% to 30% of GGR, with the minimum annual authorisation fee increasing to €480,000. The legislation has put operators under greater scrutiny and is expected to drive market restructuring in 2026 and 2027.
Political divisions over ONJN’s future remain unresolved. Proposals before Romania’s governing coalition include raising the legal gambling age to 21, banning untargeted gambling advertising and replacing ONJN entirely with a new regulatory body. Soare himself has called the existing gambling laws “morally outdated.” That uncertainty sits alongside a broader pattern across European markets, where regulators are raising the cost of non-compliance across licensing, enforcement and player protection obligations.
Whether a second funding round materialises in 2026 will depend on both the quality of applications received and the governing coalition’s resolution of the structural questions around ONJN’s mandate and long-term governance.
Source: ONJN
