Romania’s illegal gambling market runs partly on payment processors that could identify gambling transactions and choose not to, according to Vlad-Cristian Soare, the former president of the National Office for Gambling (ONJN), who was removed from the post on 21 August 2026 after 16 months in charge.
Speaking to Golazo.ro in his first interview since the dismissal, Soare said unlicensed operators route player deposits through merchant descriptions that read as ordinary retail: flowers, pizza, car washes. Processors earn their fees on the transaction either way, he said, which leaves them with no commercial reason to look closer.
“Processors could identify these transactions with extra effort. They say it cannot be done, but I know for certain it can.”
Payment blocking is one of the two levers European regulators keep returning to, alongside advertising takedowns. The chair of the Dutch regulator has called for coordinated European action on illegal gambling on the same grounds.
Blacklisted brands still reachable
ONJN blacklisted more than 1,300 sites during Soare’s tenure. NV Casino, Vulcan Casino and Verde Casino were all the subject of criminal complaints filed a year ago, and all three remain reachable through cloned domains.
Soare accepted part of the responsibility for that. Catching mirror sites required detection tools ONJN did not have until recently, he said. The regulator has since built one with the Authority for the Digitalisation of Romania.
He also named Google and Meta as continuing to serve ads for brands ONJN had already blacklisted, and said reputational and regulatory pressure would eventually stop them carrying promotions for operators outlawed in Romania. ONJN now has a legal route to issue removal orders directly to both platforms, and an automated tool for flagging illegal gambling advertising is due in the autumn.
Enforcement stops at the regulator’s boundary, Soare said. ONJN identifies a platform, blacklists it and files a criminal complaint, after which the case sits with prosecutors and the pace of the criminal process is outside the regulator’s control.
Licensed operators and the enforcement gap
Soare was critical of licence holders, saying they have not put money or technical resources behind enforcement against the unlicensed market. He drew a comparison with tobacco manufacturers, which fund anti-counterfeiting programmes, and said the gambling industry has the financial and technical means to support enforcement voluntarily rather than leaving ONJN to close the gaps alone.
The 16-month record
Soare’s figures for his time in office: more than 70 licences revoked, 11,000 inspections, 300 gaming devices seized, 10 million lei (about €2 million) in fines, more than 1,300 sites blacklisted and more than 40 criminal complaints filed. Around 100 million lei (about €20 million) in tax findings remain disputed.
He introduced geolocation for slot machines and QR codes linking individual devices to public registries, tightening the link between a machine on a street and its entry in the register. Audits by the Court of Accounts identified remaining regulatory gaps.
The same period brought two bribery cases at the top of the institution. Odeta Nestor, ONJN’s founding president, was arrested in June 2026 over bribery allegations. Deputy director Ana-Maria Badea was detained on 29 July 2026 in a separate probe involving alleged bribes of €2,500.
Self-exclusion still incomplete
The self-exclusion system, developed with the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics, does not work as a single market-wide block. Online, a player’s exclusion applies only to the specific operators they registered with. The offline version can be reversed on the basis of GDPR consent provisions.
Soare wants one digital register covering both channels, with six-month, twelve-month and indefinite options.
Tax rise, council bans and an exit without explanation
The Ministry of Finance raised the tax on online gambling operators from 21% to 27% with effect from 1 August 2026, adding to a cost base that has been climbing across one of Europe’s larger regulated markets. Days later, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan signed off on moving land-based venue licensing from ONJN to municipal councils. Several cities have since restricted venues or banned them outright.
Soare received no formal explanation for his removal. He said the decision came from the Prime Minister rather than the Finance Ministry, and that he respects it without having been given a reason.
Valentin-Ioan Tomescu has replaced him. Soare said his successor has not destabilised the institution, and that ONJN retains capable staff who lacked direction under earlier leadership.
Tomescu inherits the automated advertising tool due this autumn, a mirror-site detection system that has yet to stop three blacklisted brands trading, a self-exclusion register that only partly works, and a retail sector whose licensing now sits with councils writing their own rules.
Source: Golazo.ro
