On 29 October 2025 ONJN’s Supervisory Committee added Polymarket to Romania’s blacklist of unauthorized gambling sites. The regulator held that Polymarket’s event contracts are counterparty betting (pariuri în contraparte), an activity that needs a license under OUG 77/2009, and that the “prediction market” label does not change that. Polymarket went to court, and on 1 April 2026 a Romanian court refused to suspend the ONJN decision, so the platform remains blocked.
Key points
- Polymarket was blacklisted on 29 October 2025 and access from Romania was blocked within days.
- ONJN cited over USD 600 million traded on markets tied to Romania’s presidential election and over USD 15 million on the October 2025 Bucharest local elections.
- ONJN classifies the activity as counterparty betting, which requires a Romanian license.
- Polymarket’s request to suspend the decision was rejected on 1 April 2026; the case on the merits continues.
- Regulators in Belgium, France, Poland, Spain and Italy have taken similar steps.
What’s the issue?
Polymarket presents itself as a crypto platform for trading on the outcome of real-world events. ONJN looked past the label to the mechanics and found every element of counterparty betting:
- users stake money hoping to win;
- the outcome depends on an uncertain future event;
- other users, not the house, take the opposite side;
- the platform operates the markets and takes a commission without guaranteeing odds.
On that analysis, the only difference from a betting exchange is the blockchain settlement layer. ONJN’s then president Vlad-Cristian Soare summed it up: the decision “has nothing to do with technology, but with the law.”
The data that raised alarms
ONJN relied on Polymarket’s own public data. Markets on Romania’s presidential election showed cumulative trading volume above USD 600 million, and markets on the Bucharest local elections of October 2025 above USD 15 million. Volume is the total value of trades between users, not a single sum wagered, but the scale showed a large, Romania-focused betting market running entirely outside the licensed system.
Why now?
Crypto platforms often argue they are decentralized, or that event contracts are financial instruments rather than bets. Romania’s answer is that structure decides the treatment, not branding. ONJN warned that accepting the “trading” label would let operators avoid both gambling and capital-markets rules, and with them tax, KYC, AML and self-exclusion obligations.
The court challenge
Polymarket challenged the blacklisting in court, as Profit.ro reported in February 2026. On 1 April 2026 the court rejected its request to suspend the ONJN decision pending the main case. ONJN called it “a first important victory.” The ruling is interim: the dispute on the merits had not been decided at our last check, and until it is, the blacklisting stands.
Implications for the industry
- Crypto and prediction platforms serving Romanian users must decide whether their product is gambling, a regulated financial instrument or neither, and they carry the risk if they guess wrong.
- Suppliers and payment providers that serve a blacklisted domain are exposed. Class 2 licensees may not provide services to unlicensed operators targeting Romania, as our post on the Class 2 supplier ban explains.
- Players who use unlicensed gambling sites commit a contravention fined RON 5,000–10,000.
- Licensed operators benefit from enforcement that removes competitors who bear none of the licensing costs.
What applies now (2026)
Polymarket remained on the ONJN blacklist in October 2026, alongside 2,881 domains listed at 25 September 2026. Law 141/2025, in force since 1 August 2025, strengthened ONJN’s blacklist powers. The enforcement line survived the change at the top of ONJN in August 2026, when Vlad-Cristian Soare was replaced by Valentin-Ioan Tomescu.
The European picture has moved in the same direction. Spain’s regulator ordered precautionary blocking of Polymarket and Kalshi in May 2026, and Italy acted in July 2026.
A platform can leave the blacklist only by clarifying its legal status and obtaining the required license, which is decided by ONJN’s Supervisory Committee. Our guide to how sites get blacklisted and how to get legal sets out the process.
What operators should do
- Classify the product in each target market: gambling, derivative or neither. Get a written legal opinion for Romania.
- Either license or exclude Romania. A Class 1 license is the only route for betting with Romanian players.
- Geo-block properly, with location checks that do not rely only on self-declared data, and publish clear jurisdiction terms.
- Watch ONJN decisions, which other EU regulators increasingly cite.
The structure of the activity, not its marketing, decides how it is regulated. Our Romania licensing overview explains the Class 1 and Class 2 regimes, and our crypto rules overview covers the virtual-currency side.