Romania's National Gambling Office (ONJN) has taken significant action by blacklisting approximately 800 illegal gambling websites, marking a major move against the online black market. This latest enforcement initiative follows the addition of around 370 sites added to the blacklist earlier in the current administration's term, bringing the total number of banned sites under the current leadership to around 1,180, including the platform Polymarket. Since its inception in 2013, ONJN has blocked about 1,500 illegal gambling websites.
This boost in enforcement capabilities is attributed to the deployment of a new detection tool designed to identify clone websites, which are platforms that operate under multiple domains but share the same underlying infrastructure. This advancement enables ONJN to more effectively target illegal networks.
ONJN President Vlad-Cristian Soare emphasized that the black market presents a challenge not just for Romania, but for Europe as a whole, asserting that more than 70% of online gambling activity on the continent occurs through unlicensed operators. In response, Romania is not only strengthening legislation but is also expanding its digital oversight and investing in new monitoring technologies.
Soare noted that recent legal reforms have empowered ONJN with the authority to order the removal of illegal online content. Additionally, the regulator is in the process of developing sophisticated monitoring tools with assistance from the Romanian Digitalization Authority. Despite not fully completing its digital transformation, ONJN reports that it has already detected suspicious transactions and potential manipulation of gross gaming revenue (GGR), with these discoveries referred to the appropriate authorities earlier this year.
