Romania to set gambling age at 21 as coalition pushes sector reset
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.