Europe

Two draft proposals have been submitted to Romania’s Parliament, as parties forming the new Liberal Pro Europe Coalition government desire to drastically overhaul the governance of gambling.
Last week, Raluca Turcan, a Minister of the Liberal Party (PNL), submitted a draft proposal demanding that Parliament increase the Romanian age of gambling from 18 to 21.
Turcan called for PNL ministers to back her proposal as the “simplest measure to restrict gambling at the most fragile age”.

Protect the Age of Innocence

Turcan’s draft bill marks the PNL Party’s first step in addressing gambling reforms, a subject matter that has grabbed national attention.

The PNL minister views the age of 18-21 as the “most emotionally and financially vulnerable stage of those entering adulthood” – a period she sees as defined by impulsivity, early income management, and limited understanding of long-term risk.

The proposal aims to provide “a window of emotional and financial maturity” by restricting gambling access until age 21. Turcan highlighted successful precedents in Portugal, Greece and Moldova, where raising the legal age helped reduce youth indebtedness and early signs of gambling addiction.

Her proposal recognises the recommendations of a youth report made by international charity Save the Children which recommended Romania raise the legal age for gambling and ban gambling advertising across all mediums.

USR calls for toughest measures
A second, more sweeping draft bill was filed by Diana Stoica of the Save Romania Union (USR), marking a long-anticipated intervention by a party that is the most outspoken critic of Romania’s gambling sector and its regulatory failures.

Stoica noted that the bill responds to a “national drama hiding in plain sight,” citing research that one in four Romanian teenagers has participated in gambling before turning 18, with many starting before age 14.

Her proposal introduces a strict 06:00–24:00 ban on online gambling advertising, reflecting the digital habits of minors and young adults. It also prohibits the use of influencers, athletes and online personalities, arguing that these figures “normalise betting” and act as the primary gateway for youth gambling.

Additional measures include mandatory, prominent “addiction-risk warnings”, and a clampdown on indirect marketing through cultural or sports sponsorships when these campaigns serve as covert promotional tools.

Both proposals call for an overhaul of the Jocurilor de Noroc (Law of Games of Chance) incorporated in 2009 and last revised in 2023. Changes are needed to incorporate stricter age rules, digital-era advertising limits, and mandatory warnings.

ONJN to face reckoning
The USR has long called for a complete overhaul of gambling governance following a series of high-profile fallouts earlier this year that exposed severe structural failures at the national regulator, ONJN.

At the centre of the controversy was a failed financial audit, which revealed that ONJN had neglected to collect almost €1bn in tax and licensing income, a fiasco that dominated news cycles at the start of the year. ONJN defended itself by claiming that successive governments had failed to update and integrate tax-collection systems despite annual changes to gambling duties since 2018.

The scandal prompted a leadership reshuffle, appointing Vlad-Cristian Soare as the new head of ONJN. Yet the office remains under scrutiny, with USR openly advocating for ONJN to be disbanded entirely.

The party wants the Ministry of Taxation to assume temporary control of gambling oversight until the coalition establishes a new governing authority with modern compliance systems.

Adding further pressure on ONJN, September saw a wave of city mayors and municipal governments demand the right to licence and tax gambling establishments directly. The mayors argued that the change was urgently needed to recover lost revenues and stressed that they had “lost all trust” in the national regulator.

Coalition wants a coordinated push on reforms

Both bills arrive as part of a broader realignment under Romania’s new coalition government, formed in June and tasked with rethinking the country’s gambling, taxation and digital-economy policies.

New Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare, appointed by newly elected President Nicușor Dan, has been mandated to review and change gambling taxation once again.

As disclosed earlier this year, The Ministry of Finance is preparing a major redesign of the tax regime, set to take effect from June 2026, introducing new tiered tax bands on player winnings and increasing licensing fees across all gambling activities.

Nazare painted the measures as necessary: “We want to send a very important signal regarding the taxation of gambling, which we know very well how harmful it is to vulnerable communities when left unchecked.”

Although the PNL and USR proposals differ in scope, together they reflect an accelerating consensus within the governing bloc: Romania’s gambling sector requires a structural reset from youth protection and digital advertising to taxation, oversight and regulatory accountability.

Further legislative activity is expected in the coming months, as coalition partners prepare additional proposals on education, prevention, compliance, and long-term youth protection as Romanian politics views 2026 as a year of change for the gambling sector.

Norway’s monopoly regime is once again under fire from the state regulator, raising more questions about the future of the market.

Lottstift, the Norwegian gambling authority, is considering the issue of a penalty for Norsk Rikstoto – the country’s exclusive horse betting provider – in relation to a number of AML deficiencies.

An audit by Lottstift for the period between 6 February and 27 May 2025 has revealed a list of violations of Norway’s Money Laundering Act, which threatens Norsk Rikstoto with a fine of up to NOK 2mn (£150k) and an additional NOK 50k per day until “the deviation is corrected”.

What are the failures?
According to the investigation, the AML compliance team of Norsk Rikstoto consists of an insufficient number of people and relies on manual work procedures, which leaves “great” room for improvement in terms of automation and reducing the risks of errors due to overburdening workloads.

Another identified shortfall is Norsk Rikstoto’s customer risk assessments. Lottstift reported that the operator should make improvements as to how it classifies customers based on their risk profile, with the current distinction between monitoring and follow-up procedures not quite clear yet.

On the topic of risk management, the regulator also advised Norsk Rikstoto to conduct a review of its internal policies and ensure that the risk management process is harmonised across all departments.

Compliance documentation was another identified deficiency, with Lottstift stating: “Both the review of sample checks and what we observed during on-site inspections have shown that there is a lack of a systematic approach to documentation and logging of implemented measures, assessments and choices. We saw that some customers/cases have better descriptions of the course of the case than others.”

Finally, Lottstift focused on how effective Norsk Rikstoto is when reporting the implementation of audit recommendations, also identifying room for improvement there.

Atle Hamar, Director of Lottstift, commented: “They have deliberately set aside absolute legal requirements that should enable them to uncover and prevent money laundering.

“When they do not have good enough systems, the risk of them being exploited for money laundering increases.

“Money laundering is a serious social problem. We expect that a monopoly operator with over 170,000 players follows the law and has better control over how they will uncover and prevent money laundering.”

Lottstift lawyers say a fine is justified
Lottstift additionally released an official notice, where Tatyana Søreide Klepaker, Senior Legal Advisor for the regulator, reflected on whether a fine should be imposed.

According to Klepaker, the offences are pervasive and serious enough to suggest that a fine should be imposed.

“After a comprehensive assessment of the case….we find that a violation fine should be imposed,” she wrote. “Our assessment is that Norsk Rikstoto has good financial capacity, and that imposing the violation fee will not be disproportionately burdensome for Norsk Rikstoto’s finances.”

Norway at a crossroads
Besides Norsk Rikstoto, the regulator has also been closely monitoring Norsk Tipping – Norway’s state-owned provider of lottery, sports betting and instant games.

It has also found itself embroiled in controversy more than once over the last year, having been found violating multiple compliance standards – from AML breaches to marketing regulations.

With scrutiny over the two operators constantly piling up, the future of Norway’s monopoly market remains at a crossroads given that it will become the only monopoly regime in the Nordics after Finland transitions to a licenced market in 2027.

Swedish leisure and hospitality businesses have been advised of new licensing obligations governing the operation of slot machines in public venues, which see limitations on their hosting of slot machines based on annual turnover.

Under the new rules, restaurants will only be permitted to host slot machines if their annual food and beverage turnover exceeds SEK 1m (€100,000 including VAT), with one additional machine allowed for every extra SEK 250,000 in verified turnover. However, slot machine revenue must never exceed the restaurant’s dining turnover, a safeguard designed to reduce over-reliance on gaming income.

The reform follows Spelinspektionen, Sweden Gambling Inspectorate decision to end the former rules (LIFS 2018:9) applied by the Swedish Lottery Authority on casino gambling and slot machine games.

The intervention sees venue rules switched to a “modernised framework” – titled: “Regulations and General Advice on Slot Machine Gaming.”

Adopted from 1 December 2025, the new framework introduces clearer operational conditions for licensees servicing värdeautomater (slot machines) in hospitality and leisure venues, as defined under Chapter 5, Section 1 of the Gambling Act (2018:1138).

Further requirements demand that machines remain in full view of staff and under active supervision. They must be located within the licensed serving area, disconnected outside licensed serving hours, and cannot be positioned near ATMs or obscured spaces.

Similar provisions apply to bingo halls, where slot machines may only operate during bingo sessions and up to one hour before and after play, always under staff supervision.

Operators are also instructed to improve player-facing information, providing clear contact details, licence information, game fees, and references to responsible gambling resources such as Stödlinjen. Staff acting as spelombud (gaming attendants) must be trained in the Gambling Act, responsible gambling protocols, and player protection procedures.

Spelinspektionen’s Director General Camilla Rosenberg said the reforms promote “greater alignment between land-based and online gaming environments” and reflect the regulator’s ongoing efforts to modernise gambling oversight.

“These changes clarify the responsibilities of licensees and venues, ensuring slot gaming takes place in safe, supervised, and socially responsible environments,” the Inspectorate stated.

SIFS 2025:1 will come into force on 1 December 2025, formally repealing the LIFS 2018:9 framework and marking the first step in what regulators describe as “a complete renewal of Sweden’s gambling supervision entering 2026.

Prelude to sweeping 2026 reforms

In the closing months of 2025, Spelinspektionen has warned all Swedish licensees to prepare for a transformative 2026, during which several significant changes will reshape the country’s gambling governance.

Next year will bring modifications to the Gambling Act, tightening definitions of illegal gambling engagements and activities to strengthen enforcement against unlicensed operators. The government has moved to expand the scope of the Gambling Act to explicitly target illegal offshore companies operating in or accessible from Sweden.

The Ministry of Finance has endorsed a memorandum proposing the removal of the “directional criterion” from the Gambling Act — a long-standing provision that excluded games not specifically aimed at the Swedish market from domestic law. Its removal will allow authorities to pursue operators simply for allowing Swedish players to participate, regardless of geographic targeting.

Governance of Sweden’s gambling market will also be reinforced through new enforcement powers and a penalty framework granted to Spelinspektionen, giving the Inspectorate broader authority to issue sanctions, revoke licences, and increase penalties for non-compliance and conduct.

Of significance, Sweden will become the first EU nation to implement a complete ban on gambling with credit. Scheduled from 1 April 2026, all licensed operators will be prohibited from processing payments funded by credit cards, overdrafts, personal loans, or buy-now-pay-later services. The reform, championed by the government as a consumer-protection measure, aims to curb gambling-related indebtedness and strengthen responsible gambling safeguards.

The implementation of these measures will now fall under the leadership of Acting Director General Johan Röhr, who succeeded Camilla Rosenberg as head of Spelinspektionen on 1 November 2025, signaling a new phase in the Inspectorate’s direction and governance.

France’s leading online gambling trade association AFJEL has escalated its campaign against the rise of black-market gambling, urging authorities and media to confront the growing risks of an unregulated online casino sector that continues to erode consumer protection and state revenues.

The warning marks a renewed call from AFJEL for the French government to end the structural liabilities of the country’s gambling framework by regulating online casino gaming (iCasino) — a reform the association has pushed for since the relaunch of France’s regulated online gambling market in 2011.

The trade body has now taken its campaign directly into the French mainstream press, with its PwC-commissioned study published by Le Parisien and Libération, two of the country’s most prominent national newspapers.

According to the findings, 5.4 million French players are now active on unlicensed gambling sites, surpassing the 3.5 million users in the legal market and representing a 35% surge in two years. PwC estimates that the illegal market generated €2 billion in gross gaming revenue (GGR) in 2025, causing fiscal losses of more than €1.2 billion annually.

AFJEL warns that France faces a “digital sovereignty crisis” as unregulated offshore operators — often tied to criminal networks — continue to capture consumers through aggressive social media marketing, oversized bonuses, and influencer sponsorships, all while avoiding taxes and player-safety obligations.

“These illicit platforms lure customers with outsized inducements, flood Facebook and Google with ads, and even manipulate search engines to make themselves look legitimate,” said Nicolas Béraud, CEO of Betclic Group and President of AFJEL.
“The magnitude of this problem proves that prohibition is not protection. The only solution is a regulated and controlled iCasino offer that restores trust, protects players, and ensures fair competition.”

AFJEL maintains that the continuing ban on online casinos represents a “structural liability” for France — one that undermines consumer safety and deprives the state of significant tax revenue.

“France cannot allow a sector that could be safely regulated to remain dominated by illegal sites,” Béraud continued. “We are demanding a swift and decisive response — to end this French anomaly and restore order to the market.”

The Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) — France’s gambling regulator — has adopted a cautious stance, warning that any potential opening of the iCasino market must be “carefully considered given the highly addictive nature of such products.”

While the ANJ has expanded enforcement powers and blocked over 1,000 illegal websites in 2025, AFJEL argues that regulatory measures alone are not enough.

“Despite ANJ’s commitment, the illegal market continues to grow,” Béraud added. “This is no longer a question of enforcement — it’s a question of political will.”

Dutch operators must accept “the human cost of gambling addiction” as the defining factor in strengthening consumer safeguards, according to Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) Chairman Michel Groothuizen.

Reflecting on his recent visit to Anonieme Gokkers (Gamblers Anonymous NL), Groothuizen revealed that the charity had tracked 113 suicides directly linked to gambling debt, underscoring the deep personal and social harm that can follow gambling addiction.

“If there’s one thing I took away from that evening, it’s the certainty that the appeal of gambling for former addicts will always remain and that perseverance is a daily struggle,” he said.

Dutch health authorities report 1,878 suicides annually from roughly 50,000 attempts, with loneliness, family breakdown, and mental-health issues among the key factors. Citing Swedish research, Groothuizen stressed that gambling addicts face a 15-times higher suicide risk than the general population, adding that “loneliness and lack of perspective often play a major role — in a phenomena with which gambling addicts are so familiar.”

CRUKS– 100,000 registrations

Groothuizen’s comments follow confirmation that the CRUKS (Central Register for Self-Exclusion from Gambling) system has surpassed 100,000 registrations.

While acknowledging that the number reflects a worrying level of dependency, he described the milestone as “a sign that self-protection tools are working” and providing at-risk consumers with “a tangible route back to control.”

Under Groothuizen’s leadership, the KSA is widening its focus beyond market oversight to include consumer education, early intervention, and addiction prevention as equal priorities. The regulator has launched public awareness campaigns to promote the Gambling Counter helpline and to encourage wider use of CRUKS as part of a proactive harm-reduction strategy.

The KSA continues to refine its approach to player protection and operator compliance, taking on feedback about involuntary Cruks registration and improving communication around exclusion procedures. Groothuizen emphasised that effective supervision “depends on empathy and consistency — not only enforcing the rules but understanding what drives people to harm.”

Since beginning his chairmanship, Groothuizen has prioritised stronger duty-of-care obligations for all licence holders urging operators to move beyond box-ticking compliance and demonstrate genuine accountability for player welfare. The regulator expects operators to conduct one-to-one checks with customers, assess risk behaviours in real time, and ensure customer service teams receive targeted training to identify signs of vulnerability and potential harm.

This renewed focus, Groothuizen said, reflects the KSA’s intent to build a culture of proactive intervention, where operators act as the first line of defence in preventing gambling addiction and related harms.

A call for holistic support

The Netherlands’ emerging gambling regime aims to bridge regulation, prevention, and recovery through a coordinated support network involving health bodies, addiction charities, and state agencies. Groothuizen said the KSA will intensify cooperation with organisations such as 113 Suicide Prevention and Anonieme Gokkers, ensuring that gamblers in crisis are not left isolated.

“Regulation alone cannot restore lives,” he concluded. “Our responsibility is to ensure that every person who struggles with gambling knows there is help, hope, and a path forward.”

Groothuizen further believes that compassion and understanding must guide the next phase of revisions to the Remote Gambling Act (KOA), which will be undertaken by the incoming government. He urged policymakers to look beyond political ideology and ensure that any reform “carries the ultimate objective of protecting those at risk of suicide and the most vulnerable from gambling — the greatest human cost of any gambling regime.”

The Althing of Iceland has been urged to consider drastic reforms on how gambling is supervised and governed, as concerns mount over public health, online exposure, and the lack of state oversight on illegal gambling.

Calls for change follow the Ministry of Health’s new agreement with SÁÁ, the national addiction-treatment association, which for the first time provides state-funded therapy for gambling addiction – a condition that is recognised as a growing public concern.

The move has reignited debate over Iceland’s legal inconsistencies on gambling, that have been overlooked for more than two decades without reform.

No oversight of harms
Health Minister Alma D. Möller described gambling addiction as a “major social and public health problem”, warning that Icelanders are reported to be spending around ISK 36bn (€250m) per-year on unlicensed online gambling websites.

The figure highlights the limited market reach of Iceland’s two licensed operators — Íslensk Getspá /Getraunir and the University of Iceland Lottery, and confirms that most Icelandic players wager through unlicensed, foreign-based websites with no interaction with the state-owned enterprises.

The liabilities are well known, yet enforcement remains minimal. There are no penalties for media outlets that promote unlicensed websites or payment providers or banks who process transactions for offshore gambling companies.

Observers note that advertising for international betting brands is routinely displayed to Icelandic citizens via international media, with no consequence.

New regulator needed
Lawmakers and civil-society groups, including Samtök áhugafólks um spilafíkn (SÁS), are now calling for the creation of a single national supervisory authority to oversee gambling activity, enforce advertising rules and fund harm-reduction programmes.

Critics argue that Iceland’s current framework, chiefly the Lotteries Act No. 38/2005, is outdated and unable to address the realities of digital gambling and cross-border payments.

Push for control
Minister Möller said the government must “look at how neighbouring countries regulate this activity” and ensure that public health and consumer protection remain central to any legislative review.

“To take money from an industry that exploits addiction and can have such severe consequences is simply not morally acceptable,” Möller said.

Parliamentary discussions are expected before the end of the year, with MPs weighing whether Iceland should introduce a unified gambling regulator, tighter advertising controls, and stronger inter-ministerial cooperation on financial monitoring, media accountability and addiction support.