Romania’s gambling authority, the ONJN, has started work on reviewing and revising the national gambling legislation.
The gambling office noted that there is a necessity to address a variety of “outdated” regulations that have brought fragmentation and inconsistencies across the whole sector, but fell short of naming what changes exactly it will make.
From the official statement it becomes clear that the overhaul has been directly mandated by ONJN President Valentin-Ioan Tomescu, who was appointed on 21 August 2026.
“The President of the ONJN has modified the composition of the working group responsible for drafting regulatory acts in this sector, with a mandate to analyze and harmonize existing legislation,” the ONJN stated.
The end goal – which at this point has no deadline – is a revised legislature that better corresponds to the current state of the local industry and the ONJN’s supervisory and control responsibilities, “bringing order to the entire regulatory framework”.
The ONJN in need of stability
Tomescu stepped into power earlier in August, replacing the previous ONJN President Vlad-Cristian Soare, who held the reign for just over a year after his appointment in April 2025.
However, the transition was far from smooth, bringing even more controversy to a regulator marred by scandals going back to last year 2025 and continuing deep into 2026.
Looking back through the timeline starting with the most recent events, Tomescu was appointed in August on the order of Romania’s President to replace Soare, which was an unexpected turn of events that left the ex-ONJN chief with no explanation, according to Soare himself.
In July, reports came out that the now-former Deputy Director General of the ONJN, Ana-Maria Badea, became a person of interest in a corruption probe where ONJN officials had allegedly received bribes to act in certain operators’ favour.
Badea’s case followed another high profile headline from the same month, where Odea Nestor, ONJN President between 2013-2017, was brought into custody over an alleged €100,000 bribery facilitated between an ONJN official and a Bulgarian gambling operator.
It is important to note that Soare has distanced himself from both cases. Speaking to the media in light of the allegations against Badea, he said: “It is an important and necessary step to have a credible institution. For me, the integrity of the institution is a priority. ONJN must operate with zero tolerance towards acts of corruption.”
Lastly, Soare himself was brought to the ONJN to bring chaos to order after an audit found that nearly €1bn was missing in gambling taxes for the period 2019-2023, which led to the resignation of Soare’s predecessor.
Taking all of this into account, alongside our analysis of the challenges facing Romania’s newly-elected Prime Minister when engaging with the gambling sector, it is fair to say that the ONJN finds itself at a major crossroads.
And with his latest announcement, Tomescu appears determined to steer the regulator in what he considers to be the right direction.