Romania Has Lost 70% of Its Slot Machines Without Banning Them

How Emergency Ordinance 7/2026 emptied Romania’s land-based gambling market, why local budgets still have nothing to show for it, and what the turmoil at ONJN means for operators and suppliers.

In brief

Since 25 February 2026, ONJN can only renew a slot machine operating authorisation if the operator also holds a local authorisation from the council where the venue sits.
Most councils have not adopted the regulation needed to issue one, so machines leave the register as their one-year ONJN authorisations expire.
Local budgets have collected almost nothing, while the state has lost an estimated €400 million so far, according to Frames.
A transitional fix has been drafted, but the interim government is widely considered unable to adopt it. ONJN changed president on 21 August 2026.

No national law has banned slot machines in Romania. Yet on 1 September 2026, the public register of the National Gambling Office (ONJN) listed just 19,723 machines with a valid operating authorization. In March the figure was 35,533. Against 2023 levels, the authorized fleet is down by more than 70%.

The cause is Government Emergency Ordinance No. 7/2026, adopted on 24 February and published in Official Gazette No. 146 the following day. It was sold as a way to hand mayors more control over gambling halls and a new stream of local revenue. Six months in, according to an analysis by the Bucharest think tank Frames, it has produced neither. Frames puts the combined hit to the economy at more than €1 billion a year once the knock-on effects are counted.

How the ordinance was meant to work

OUG 7/2026 is an omnibus act that amends 34 separate laws. Its gambling provisions rewrite the framework law, OUG 77/2009, in one important respect. Before February, an ONJN licence and operating authorisation allowed an operator to run machines anywhere in the country. Now any physical venue also needs an annual local operating authorisation.

The mechanism runs in two steps. First, each local council votes on whether gambling is allowed on its territory at all. If the answer is no, that is the end of it. If the answer is yes, the council has to adopt a local regulation setting the permitted zones and an annual local tax calculated on floor area. Individual authorisations are then granted by council resolution, one application at a time, and the tax falls due within 30 days of the grant.

The amended Article 15(2)(a) of OUG 77/2009 closes the loop: ONJN can only issue an operating authorisation to an operator that already holds the local one. Operators with valid ONJN authorisations on the day the ordinance took effect were allowed to keep trading until those authorisations expired, and they owe no local tax for that remaining period.

Online gambling sits entirely outside this regime. Remote operators remain on the national licence and are not subject to any local decision.

The gap nobody closed

Councils were given 60 days to adopt their resolutions. That deadline carried no sanction, and most councils treated it accordingly.

By 1 September, more than four months after it passed, only about 90 of Romania’s roughly 3,100 localities had adopted any decision on gambling. Of those, 35 chose a ban and 55 chose to allow the activity. Cluj-Napoca and Ploiești are among the larger cities that voted for prohibition. Slatina went for a near-total ban. Others, such as Târgu Mureș and Bucharest’s Sector 6, have discussed pushing halls out of residential areas.

Everywhere else there is simply no regulation. And because ONJN authorizations run for one year, every machine in those localities hits a wall on its expiry date: the operator cannot get a local authorization from a council that has not adopted the rules, so ONJN cannot renew. The machine goes dark. Nobody banned it. It just could not be relicensed.

The fiscal arithmetic

The ordinance was written as a revenue measure for local government. Its own design meant local budgets were always going to wait. The local tax is not due during the transitional period, and in the 35 localities that banned gambling it will never be due.

Meanwhile, the state budget has been losing money since the spring. Frames estimates the loss so far at close to €400 million. The machines that have already left the market were generating around €350 million a year in authorisation fees, the vice tax, responsible-gambling contributions, and income tax and social contributions on the jobs attached to them.

The projections are worse. Following the expiry dates already visible in the ONJN register, Frames expects the authorized fleet to fall to 14,682 machines on 1 October, 9,786 on 1 December and 7,201 at the start of 2027. On that trajectory, the direct loss to public revenue reaches €530–550 million a year. Add the suppliers that depend on the sector (landlords, telecoms, payment processors, IT, security) and the total impact passes €1 billion.

How firm are these numbers? The machine counts come from the public ONJN register and are not in dispute. The revenue estimates are a different matter. In an earlier assessment in August, Adrian Negrescu, who led the Frames analysis, noted that the underlying figures come from industry calculations and should be read that way.

Jobs that will not come back quickly

At the start of 2026, the land-based private gambling sector employed between roughly 26,400 and 28,000 people. By 1 July the figure was 19,636. If current expiry rates hold, Frames expects employment to drop below 10,000 in the first months of 2027, which would mean two in three jobs gone compared with January.

Reversing this is harder than it sounds. A venue that closes loses its lease and its staff within weeks. Reopening it means clearing two administrative hurdles in sequence: first a local authorisation, which requires an adopted regulation, an application and a council vote; then an ONJN authorisation, machine by machine. Nobody signs a new lease or rehires a team while waiting on a council that may not meet for months.

Some operators are hedging. Superbet has converted dozens of its street agencies into “Home of Superliga” points where no bets are taken and no slots run. The shops handle deposits and withdrawals for online accounts and customer support instead, which keeps the location and the foot traffic while the legal position settles.

Where the players went

The question that worries regulators most is where the displaced spend has gone. By 1 July 2026, ONJN’s blacklist of illegal gambling websites had grown to 1,863 domains, with more than 300 added in the previous twelve months.

There is a second, less comfortable question. Sources close to ONJN told the Romanian press in June that licensed online gambling had not grown enough to account for the shrinking land-based market. If players did not move to regulated online sites, they either stopped playing, moved to unlicensed platforms and back-street machines, or some of the land-based turnover was never ordinary consumer play to begin with. None of these explanations is good news for the state’s ability to track the money.

“We closed 70% of the market we could actually control.”
Adrian Negrescu, Frames

A regulator in the middle of its own crisis

All of this has landed on an institution that has had a turbulent summer.

On 29 July, anti-corruption prosecutors (DNA) detained Ana-Maria Badea, deputy director general of ONJN’s Gambling Authorisation Directorate, on charges of taking bribes. Prosecutors allege that between December 2025 and May 2026 she received €2,500 from a representative of several gambling companies in return for fast, favourable handling of approvals for new games and reauthorisations. Two inspectors from the Supervision and Control Directorate were placed under judicial control, accused of taking smaller sums from operators to avoid sanctions during inspections. All are presumed innocent until a final judgment.

Three weeks later, on 21 August, interim Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan removed ONJN president Vlad-Cristian Soare (Decision No. 283/2026) and appointed Valentin-Ioan Tomescu (Decision No. 284/2026), both published in Official Gazette No. 696. Soare said he was given no reasons. He pointed to his record since April 2025: roughly 1,300 illegal sites blacklisted, 11,000 inspections and fines of around 10 million lei. Tomescu is an ONJN insider, previously head of the South-East territorial service in Constanța and, before Soare moved him, director general of Supervision and Control.

The Court of Accounts had also been scrutinising the Office. Its report on 2024 found, among other things, that ONJN had not monitored land-based operators’ monthly declarations, had no real access to online operators’ mirror servers and had not assessed an estimated 116 million lei in unpaid authorisation fees owed by slot operators after OUG 82/2023. A follow-up published in August recorded remedial steps: five-year retrospective audits, a control on GGR manipulation by some online operators, and full mirror-server access. It also noted a gap that still depends on the government: extending ONJN’s central self-exclusion register to online operators needs an emergency ordinance that has been drafted since January 2026 and has not been adopted.

Tomescu’s first visible test came ten days into the job, when a large batch of Superbet machine authorisations expired on 31 August and the Supervisory Committee met the same day to decide on renewals.

The fix that “only needs a signature”

Frames argues that most of the damage could be stopped with a short transitional rule tying the local-authorisation requirement to the actual existence of a local regulation. Where a council has not adopted one, operators would keep trading under their ONJN authorisation. The think tank says the text has already been drafted and agreed between ONJN and the Ministry of Finance and needs no further impact study. It also proposes a model regulation that councils could adopt as a template for zones, tax levels and procedure.

The obstacle is political, not technical. The Bolojan government was dismissed by a censure motion on 5 May 2026, passed with 281 votes, and has governed on an interim basis ever since. Under Article 26(3) of Law No. 90/2001, an outgoing government may only adopt the acts needed to administer public affairs and may not promote new policies. That limit is widely read as ruling out new emergency ordinances. An attempt to install a new cabinet under Adrian Veștea failed in Parliament on 22 June. At the start of September, the President was expected to nominate a new Prime Minister by mid-month.

In practice, then, the signature will have to wait for a government with full powers, or for Parliament to amend OUG 7/2026 through its approval law.

The legal front

The ordinance is also under constitutional challenge. On 6 March 2026, the Ombudsman referred parts of OUG 7/2026 to the Constitutional Court. The Ministry of Justice had given a negative opinion on the gambling provisions before adoption. Until the Court rules, the law stands.

Separately, individual council resolutions can be challenged in the administrative courts, and operators have been given fresh arguments. A study published in the University of Bucharest Law Faculty’s A.U.B.D. Forum Juridic (No. 2/2026) argues that permanent, blanket local bans on a nationally licensed activity may breach proportionality, economic freedom (Articles 45 and 135 of the Constitution) and EU free-movement case law, particularly where a council has not shown that less restrictive measures, such as opening hours or minimum distances, would fail. It also points to an obvious inconsistency: a council can close every hall in town but cannot stop the same residents from playing online.

Is online next?

The online industry is not reassured by its exemption. In May, Odeta Nestor, president of the Association of Remote Gambling Organisers (AOJND), warned that restrictions would move from retail to online because policymakers do not distinguish between the two. In September, the Romanian press reported discussion of a new gambling law that would treat retail and online more uniformly, although no draft has been made public.

The fiscal backdrop is already heavier than a year ago. Law No. 141/2025, in force since August 2025, raised the levy on remote gambling to 30% of GGR with a higher minimum, lifted the annual authorization fee per slot machine to €6,000, doubled the vice tax to €1,000 per machine position, and increased the withholding tax on player winnings.

For B2B suppliers and license holders. Revenue tied to land-based operators now follows the expiry dates in the ONJN register, so the churn is visible months ahead. Online clients remain under the national regime, and a remote license is insulated from local decisions for now. Build extra time into game approvals and reauthorizations while the Authorization Directorate absorbs the July investigation. Our Romania licensing guide covers the current Class 1 and Class 2 requirements, and our slot machine license page covers the land-based track.

What to watch before year-end

Four things will decide how much of the land-based market is left in 2027. The first is whether a new government is invested in September and treats the transitional rule as a priority. The second is the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the Ombudsman’s referral. The third is the pace at which the largest cities, Bucharest above all, adopt regulations or bans. The fourth is how ONJN under new leadership handles renewals as the next expiry waves hit on 1 October and 1 December.

Frames closes on a point that is hard to argue with. The venues already closed and the revenue already lost will not come back. What can still be saved is the purpose the ordinance was written for.

Questions operators are asking

What is OUG 7/2026 and how does it affect gambling in Romania?

OUG 7/2026 is an omnibus emergency ordinance adopted on 24 February 2026 and published in Official Gazette No. 146 on 25 February 2026. It amends OUG 77/2009 so that any land-based gambling venue needs an annual local operating authorization, granted by local council resolution, in addition to the ONJN license and operating authorization. Each council decides whether gambling is allowed at all, and if so sets permitted zones and an annual local tax.

Does OUG 7/2026 apply to online gambling?

No. The local authorisation regime covers physical venues only. Remote gambling operators continue to work under the national ONJN licence and authorisation and are not subject to local council decisions. Industry bodies have nonetheless warned that restrictions could extend to online through future legislation.

Why have slot machines disappeared if no national law banned them?

ONJN operating authorizations run for one year. Under the amended Article 15(2)(a) of OUG 77/2009, ONJN can only renew for an operator that already holds a local authorization. Where a council has not adopted a gambling regulation, no local authorization can be issued, so machines drop out of the register as their ONJN authorizations expire. The register showed 19,723 authorized machines on 1 September 2026, against 35,533 in March.

How many localities have regulated gambling under OUG 7/2026?

According to the Frames analysis published in September 2026, only about 90 of Romania’s roughly 3,100 localities had adopted a decision on gambling by 1 September 2026. Of these, 35 chose to ban gambling and 55 chose to allow it. The 60-day deadline set by the ordinance carried no sanction for councils that missed it.

What happens to operators whose ONJN authorization was valid when OUG 7/2026 took effect?

They may continue operating until that authorization expires, and they do not owe the new local tax for the remaining period. The local authorization requirement applies to them from the expiry date onward.

How is the local gambling tax calculated and when is it paid?

The council sets the annual local tax by resolution, calculated by reference to the floor area of the venue. It is payable within 30 days of the grant of the local operating authorisation, not in advance as a condition of applying.

Can local gambling bans be challenged?

Yes. Individual council resolutions can be challenged in the administrative courts, and a constitutionality exception can be raised in those proceedings. Separately, the Ombudsman referred provisions of OUG 7/2026 to the Constitutional Court on 6 March 2026. Until the Court rules, the ordinance produces full legal effects.

Who leads ONJN in September 2026?

Valentin-Ioan Tomescu was appointed president of ONJN by Decision No. 284/2026, published in Official Gazette No. 696 of 21 August 2026, replacing Vlad-Cristian Soare, who was removed by Decision No. 283/2026. Tomescu previously headed ONJN’s South-East territorial service in Constanța.

Why hasn’t the government adopted the transitional fix?

The Bolojan government was dismissed by a censure motion on 5 May 2026 and has governed on an interim basis since. Under Article 26(3) of Law No. 90/2001, an outgoing government may only adopt acts necessary to administer public affairs and may not promote new policies, which is widely read as excluding new emergency ordinances. The fix therefore depends on a government with full powers or on Parliament amending OUG 7/2026 through its approval law.

What does OUG 7/2026 mean for B2B game suppliers in Romania?

Suppliers whose revenue depends on land-based operators face a shrinking installed base that follows the expiry dates visible in the ONJN register. Online B2C clients remain under the national regime for now. Suppliers should also plan for slower approval of new games and reauthorizations while ONJN’s Authorization Directorate works through the consequences of the July 2026 anti-corruption investigation.

Sources

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