Not every European market manages to stay fully regulated and familiar and still raise the bar on tax, advertising, and operational setup. Romania is a fully coordinated market with a long-standing licensing framework, yet it has tight budget, marketing, and launch requirements. For operators, that mix creates a predictable route to legal entry, plus a compliance workload that you must budget for upfront.

Casino Market prepares the licensing guide for teams that plan real launches. Our experts focus on the information and figures that determine the project's success in Romania. We analyse annual fees, minimum taxes, guarantee amounts, and the steps that slow approval if you miss them.

Order a turnkey gambling solution with official operability in Romania. Buy all the needed software at Casino Market and get the products that support audit-ready reporting and effective advertising.

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Legal Basis

Romania regulates games of chance mainly through Government Emergency Ordinance (GEO) 77/2009 and its implementing rules. The National Gambling Office (ONJN) is the specialised regulator. Another core act to keep in mind is GEO 20/2013, which set up ONJN as a dedicated authority.

The regulator issues licences, supervises compliance, and can publish and update a black list of unauthorised websites and related entities. Blacklists matter because payment and traffic controls often rely on regulatory lists.

Romania’s framework has not stayed still in recent years:

1. 6 October 2023 (GEO 82/2023). Major amendments took effect, including stronger localisation requirements for online organisers and higher fiscal pressure across verticals.
2. 28 April 2024 (Law 107/2024) and 28 June 2024 (GEO 80/2024). Further tightening, including notable advertising limits and land-based slot-machine locality rules (15,000+ population).
3. 25 July 2025 (Law 141/2025). Changes like fee/tax uplifts in several categories and the higher online authorisation minimum took effect.

A practical turning point is the operational footprint rule for online business. Activity must run through a locally incorporated company or an EEA-based entity that registers a Romanian permanent establishment for tax purposes. This approach pushes revenue recognition into Romania and may add corporate tax considerations on top of gaming-specific payments.

Online Gambling

Remote activities are permitted and licensed under a Class I organiser regime. Meanwhile, B2B services typically fall into Class II. The law also expects the player-facing product to meet local transparency standards, including information displayed in Romanian on the licensed site (operator details, rules, payments, support contacts, complaint routes).

Class I

This core approval lets a company offer gambling products to Romanian players (online and land-based). For remote operations, it is the legal path to run a local website or app, while the regulator maintains a second layer through annual authorisations that confirm you can continue offering specific games during that year.

The permit allows you to operate as an organiser. The authorisation is yearly approval for the remote platform. In practical terms, it can cover the entire online domain rather than forcing you to authorise each game as a separate unit, as many land-based formats do.

Eligibility and corporate setup matter from the beginning. Romania allows the organiser to be a company registered nationally or in the EU/EEA/Switzerland, but it still expects a real local footprint for the licensed activity. That is usually implemented through permanent establishment, which also affects how taxes and reporting sit in practice.

License duration and stability attract operators despite high costs. A Class I licence is typically issued for a long period (commonly 10 years), while the authorisation and fiscal obligations run on an annual cycle. This structure provides stable, long-term legal status but requires annual compliance through renewals and payments.

Operational obligations go beyond paying fees. The regulator expects the online platform to be transparent and monitorable. Player-facing information must be available in Romanian, and reporting tools must support supervision. Another major operational point is infrastructure. Romania requires a local hosting presence for online organisers, which is usually implemented through servers located in the country or mirror systems that enable real-time access and audit-style checks.

The Class I license also defines legal suppliers and service providers. Once you are licensed, you can contract with Class II suppliers and affiliates that are properly authorised to serve the market. Without that pairing, providers risk breaching Romanian rules, so licensing status affects the entire operational ecosystem around the brand.

Class II

This route is used by many suppliers and support entities (platform services, game developers, testing bodies, and other ecosystem participants). The annual licence fee for this permit is €20,000. On top of that, applicants are required to make a one-time €10,500 issuance-related administrative tax at the licensing stage.

Land-Based Gambling

Retail activities exist across several recognised categories (casinos, betting shops, poker clubs, bingo halls, slot-machine locations). Each vertical has its own authorisation logic, often priced per venue or unit rather than a single umbrella fee.

An important policy is the locality restriction for slot-machine venues. Amendments in force in 2024 limited these operations to places with 15,000 inhabitants or more. The regulator uses national statistics databases to verify this threshold.

How different the land-based distribution can be:

1. Casino tables are priced differently in Bucharest than in other locations.
2. Slot-machine fees are set per unit (for certain categories).
3. Fixed-odds betting authorisation expressed as a percentage with a minimum floor.

Costs and Taxes

Romania's licensing costs include annual fees, authorisation taxes, administrative charges, marketing levies, and sometimes guarantee and social responsibility payments.

The cost pillars most operators should model:

• €300,000 as annual licence fee (remote organiser, Class I);
• 30% yearly authorisation tax on gambling revenue (minimum €480,000);
• €3,500 administrative fee for file analysis;
• €10,500 as a one-time tax for licence issuance.

Romania applies a specific promotion tax connected to advertising contracts for gambling activities. The law sets it at 5% of the value of relevant marketing agreements, with reporting and payment rules tied to the month after contract conclusion or instalment schedules.

In addition to direct payments, the regime uses guarantees as a risk-control mechanism. For land-based organisers, a minimum fund of €1,000,000 (and €3,000,000 for ground casinos) is applied. For online activity, GEO 77/2009 also shows guarantee values tied to revenue bands in certain periods, and the amounts have been tightened over time.

Many teams underestimate annual responsible gambling contributions. The yearly payment for Class I remote organisers was increased sharply, €5,000 to €500,000 under the 2023 changes. That single line item can reshape ROI calculations for smaller brands.

Licence Acquisition

Romania's remote licensing is formal and document-intensive, with clear taxes and compliance requirements. The framework is structured, so proper preparation avoids delays from incomplete applications.

Practical sequence most operators follow:

1. Choose your corporate structure early. The post-2023 rules link licensing eligibility to local presence or a registered permanent establishment.
2. Prepare the compliance pack and pay the analysis fee. The remote application file is assessed by ONJN, and the administrative analysis charge for a distance-gambling licence is €3,500 at the submission stage.
3. Align the product with player-facing disclosure rules. Romanian-language support contacts, complaint pathways, and clear guidelines must appear on the website, alongside regulator licence details.
4. Plan the tax calendar before launch. The operator needs capacity for annual licence payments, authorisation calculations, plus any monthly or contract-driven obligations like the advertising levy.
5. Secure authorisation and maintain it through ongoing reporting. Romania requires both licensing and registration. Operators must maintain good standing through payments and compliance.

Opportunities and Challenges

Romania suits well-funded, compliance-ready operators but challenges minimum-budget launches.

Benefits of Licensing

The market offers several practical advantages when the product, finance model, and compliance plan match the local rules.

The strongest angles operators usually work with:

1. Clear legal framework for online activity. Remote gambling has an established licensing route, with defined annual fees and publicly set authorisation rules.
2. Regulator tools that reduce grey-market uncertainty. Blacklist publication and supervision mechanisms support enforcement, helping licensed brands compete in a more controlled environment.
3. EU/EEA structural route for eligible businesses. The ability to operate via an EEA entity with a Romanian permanent establishment can be workable for groups that already run regulated European structures.
4. Predictable advertising levy mechanics. The promotion tax is strict, yet it is clearly defined (5% of contract value), so marketing teams can model it and avoid accidental mishaps.

Issues to Deal with

The same framework also includes barriers that can reshape strategy, especially for smaller entrants.

Potential problems to counter:

1. High fixed annual cost base. €300,000 per year for the licence plus a 30% authorisation tax with a €480,000 minimum creates a heavy baseline before content, payments, or marketing costs.
2. Local presence and revenue recognition complexity. The permanent establishment or national company requirement can add tax planning and operational restructuring.
3. Fast-moving amendments and legislative inflation. 2023–2025 brought repeated updates, which means compliance roadmaps must be living documents.
4. Sharper responsible gambling cost layer. Reported increases in annual contributions for remote organisers can be material at scale, and they reduce flexibility for lean operators.
5. Advertising limits that change the media mix. Outdoor placements face size constraints (35 square metres), and promotional channels face stricter scrutiny, requiring careful user acquisition design.

The Main Things about Romania Gambling Licensing

This jurisdiction offers a stable legal route to run iGaming activities, but the financial bar is not low. If you treat compliance as a core product feature, the framework becomes manageable and predictable.

Key aspects to be aware of in the Romanian gambling market:

• Class I online gaming organisers pay €300,000 as an annual licence fee.
• The remote authorisation tax is 30% of gambling revenue, with a €480,000 yearly minimum from 1 August 2025.
• A Romanian company or a permanent establishment is a central condition after the 2023 reforms.
• Advertising contracts can trigger a 5% promotion tax, and outdoor placements face strict size limits.
• Recent law changes increased fees and added extra cost pressure, so budgeting needs a wide margin.

If you want to enter Romania without losing months on reworks and compliance gaps, Casino Market can help you choose the right operating structure. Order a turnkey gambling solution to start from scratch or buy all the necessary software pieces to upgrade your project and be able to work in Romania or any other cherished jurisdiction.

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James Burton The Casino Market partner, the owner of the gambling establishments’ network

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