To start with, one can find out how the sports betting industry was formed in Romania in this guide to online sports betting in Romania. This is followed by a review of the development of the online market as well as taxation for players who bet on games. The article also examines whether Romanian players can access these sites finally concluding with an analysis of future predictions.
Romania has been able to create a somewhat perplexing landscape for online gambling, though there are few restrictions that are actually enforced. This country is situated in southeastern-central Europe and has a small coastline on the west of Black Sea. Following the end of World War II, Romania was under Soviet occupation and became one of the communist countries behind the Iron Curtain. Romania ceased being a communist state in 1989 when communism collapsed across Europe; it then became democratic and joined the European Union in 2007.
Just like other forms of betting, sports betting was banned by the communist government, but it had a huge demand in the black market. The first casinos and betting shops got licensed after democracy in 1990 [2]. These developments were very popular among citizens and visitors alike.
It is worth noting that the number of firms that run stores and kiosks in this country is now above 20. Also, it has always been acknowledged by everyone that football markets are the biggest, with betting on Romanian Liga I and other European competitions being popular among locals. For instance, handball betting is a popular trend in Romania, but one may also find basketball and rugby as good bets for placing bets.
Before a short time ago, Romania had no laws on the internet gambling. Consequently throughout the first decade of the new millennium Romanian sports bettors could use any international site, and domestic sites as well.
Romania at first submitted a draft legislation to the European Commission in 2010 for them to have control over the internet companies. However, these were rejected by the EC, with one major complaint being that Romania would license only operators who had land based operations within their frontiers [2]. In spite of this, Romania attempted unsuccessfully to implement these laws while others were still in process of being drafted.
However, despite the new laws that were passed in April 2013 that signaled a fresh approach to online market issues, some of the EU’s concerns have been taken into consideration in the legislation. The National Gambling Office was established as a regulatory body responsible for online licensing and land-based gambling with an aim of encouraging international companies to apply for online licenses [3]. However, there has been little progress towards imposing taxes on Internet betting and excluding unlicensed Romanian operators from the market.
The text of the law has caused several companies to close their doors to Romanian bettors, while Bwin.Party only disallowed new sign-ups. Strangely though, others still operate openly. This is how these firms are globally strategised to please other regulators who would rather have the US system of things in place thus being able to shield their investors.
Some of the most recent laws contained proposals to tax winnings above 600 RON at a 25% rate. This plan has been scrapped and therefore the tax focus is on the operators who are always in profit, rather than the customers who often lose.
Therefore, most of the EU countries Romanian sports lovers still can gamble their winnings without paying taxes for them.
Many international online betting sites can be found in Romanian, primarily those licensed in Europe, although there are almost no foreign ones that will let you bet on a Romanian Leu, this means one has to opt for having your account balance denominated in another currency such as Euros.
To deposit and withdraw from these international bettings is fairly simple since Romanian banks do not have restrictions in place. There are also several debit card firms that accept Visa and MasterCard credit cards. Neteller and Skrill internet purses are as well common options enabling quick online transactions.
Romania could have a governing organization established to control betting within its territory, and this could turn out to be either good or bad for the industry.
Though it seems to promise industry growth, this could also be the beginning of blacklists and ISP blocks, though there have been few steps in this regard. However it is not clear how long this will continue and considering the huge popularity of online sports betting and other forms of gambling in Romania, we can expect a little bit caution.
Europe’s opinion of the last few years is still uncertain because much of what was previously objected to still exists in the laws.
It is not clear whether or not Romania will follow their guidelines as Europe has previously ignored it but this is bound to leave the government with less pressure on payment processors and ISPs for it to continue online grey market without EC support.
[1] Gambling Laws – GBGC
[3] Analysis of Romania’s Gambling Laws in 2013- ACC Lexology
