The Romanian Senate has adopted two legislative proposals to amend the Emergency Ordinance on gambling and introduce measures to protect young people.
The first proposal raises the minimum age for gambling participation from 18 to 21 and bans entry to gambling establishments for persons under 21.
The second proposal imposes strict regulations on gambling advertising. It prohibits online gambling advertisements from 6:00am to 12:00am, mirroring existing rules for audiovisual media.
Furthermore, it completely bans the use of public figures to promote gambling on any platform.
The two proposals were initiated by a group of parliamentarians from the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Save Romania Union (USR), and the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR), which together form the current Coalition Government.
Despite receiving rejection reports from the specialised Economic and Legal Committees, the proposals were adopted in the Senate plenary.
The USR party appealed to the Senate plenary to support adopting the two proposals, despite negative reports.
Diana Stoica, USR group leader in the Chamber of Deputies and initiator of the two bills, said: "Although we proposed reasonable measures to protect young people from gambling and reduce aggressive exposure to advertising, both proposals received rejection reports. It is a worrying signal that, instead of prioritising public health and the protection of younger generations, such initiatives are blocked before they have a real chance."
The legislative proposals will now move to the Chamber of Deputies, which serves as the decision-making body in these cases.
Last year, Romania introduced stricter B2B rules to curb unlicensed online gambling. The amendments tighten obligations on Class II suppliers – including software developers, platform providers, hosts and payment processors – to prevent them from supporting
black-market operations
