Romania regulator targets test accounts, game rules

• ONJN opened a 15-day public consultation on 3 July 2026, running until 17 July, on two draft orders.
• The first order sets minimum standards for game rules, terms and conditions, and promotional rules; the second targets test accounts, virtual credit and demo sessions.
• The consultation runs alongside a Court of Accounts audit citing GGR manipulation at ONJN and the arrest of a former ONJN president on bribery charges.

Romania’s National Gambling Office (ONJN) has opened a public consultation on two draft orders aimed at tightening how online operators present game rules and demo-play features to players.

The consultation runs from 3 to 17 July 2026, giving stakeholders 15 calendar days to submit feedback by email to the regulator.

The first draft order sets minimum standards for how operators draft, publish and apply game regulations, terms and conditions, and promotional rules. ONJN said the move responds partly to petitions alleging inconsistent, and at times potentially abusive, interpretation of these rules by remote gambling operators.

Clearer game rules

Vlad-Cristian Soare, ONJN President with the rank of secretary of state, wrote in a LinkedIn post that game regulations must be clear, accessible and predictable, so participants understand withdrawal, bonus and verification conditions before they play.

He specifically flagged the practice of allowing players to keep gambling during a payout review. Accounts should not stay active for play, he said, during suspended withdrawal checks.

Demo play crackdown

The second draft order targets test accounts, virtual credit and demonstration sessions on remote gambling platforms. ONJN wants a clear separation between genuine play and technical testing, warning that test accounts must not distort reporting on gross gaming revenue (GGR), return to player, taxes, stakes or jackpots.

The order also covers how test accounts appear in livestreams and content made by streamers, affiliates and influencers, so audiences are not misled into treating virtual-credit winnings as genuine results.

Scandal backdrop

ONJN’s consultation runs alongside separate, unrelated pressure on the institution.

A Court of Accounts audit covering 2024 found an estimated prejudice of 149.48 million lei (roughly €30 million), citing payment discrepancies, GGR manipulation and a lack of real monitoring at ONJN until 2025.

Separately, a former ONJN president was arrested on 17 June 2026 over an alleged scheme to bribe ONJN Secretary General Narcis Godeanu, who was reportedly cooperating with anti-corruption prosecutors as an authorised collaborator.

Prosecutors allege the scheme aimed to bury a compliance check tied to a jackpot payout of more than €1 million, awarded to an operator in March 2023. A Bulgarian businessman is said to have promised €100,000 in total, delivering 45,000 and 5,000 in April, with the remaining 50,000 handed over on 16 June, when he was caught in flagrante delicto.

The bribery case remains an allegation at this stage, pending further court proceedings.

Regulator agenda

ONJN’s wider agenda this year has included a proposal to raise the legal gambling age to 21 and restrict celebrity-fronted advertising, alongside nationwide raids on unlicensed venues and criminal complaints filed against unlicensed operators.

Operators active in Romania have until 17 July to submit views on both draft orders, which will directly affect how T&Cs, bonus terms and demo-play marketing are structured once the rules take effect.

The final texts, and any changes made after consultation, will set the compliance baseline the market works to for the rest of 2026.