Teodora Luca
Senior Associate
Mihai Luca Law Office
The authorization to exploit betting activities
The authorization is the second document issued by the National Gambling Office, for the legal exploitation of the betting activity. It is issued for a period of 1 year and remains valid under the condition of payment the fees, as provided by law.
The value of the authorization fee is 16% from GGR (difference between the stakes collected and the winning paid by the company to the participants), but not least than 90.000 Euro/year, the minimum payment being due in advance.
For obtaining the betting authorization, the economical operators must prove that:
• they own a betting license that should be valid the date of the submission of the request for obtaining the betting authorization or that they have submitted a request for obtaining the betting licence;
• the company detains at least 15 locations and 30 terminals where the activity is to be performed
• the betting locations shall be operated by means of software (independent computing programmers), unique at the level of the organizing company, irrespective of the number of locations where that activity is carried out, under the obligation of centralizing, in a central electronic system placed on Romania’s territory, the information that could point out each and every connected game terminal, as well as the total amount of the attendance fees collected and the total amount of the prizes awarded;
• the company provides the Rules of the game and the Rules applicable for the employees ( they will be drafted by our Law Office, with no connection with the rules that are currently applicable within any other company in Romania)
• the company provides description of the activity, including the location where the server is
For covering the risk of failing to pay the obligations towards the consolidated general budget, the organizers shall create a guarantee fund for each and every location, until the date of submitting the documentation for the granting of the gamble exploitation license in favor of the territorial tax organism where they are recorded.
The level of the guarantees for covering the payment failure risk is 7000 Euro for the activity of the operator and 100 Euro for each working point (agency) where the latter carries out its activity, however not more than 100.000 Euro at the level of one organizer.
The granting date stands for the first of the month that follows after the one in which, after the documentation submitted by the economical operator will have been analyzed and approved of, the payment of the amounts due in advance by the economical operator (license fee and authorization fee), will be performed.
The applicant, however, has the right to pay until the 25th of the next month, after the approval of the request for issuance. In this situation the activity may be started only at the 1st of the month following the date when the payment was performed.
Slot-machines gambling activities
The License is the nominal document granted for company, for a period of 10 years.
It is issued for the activity of the company, providing that the yearly fee (20.000 Euro, in RON equivalent) is paid as per the in-force provisions:
(i) for the first year: till the 25th (including this day) of the month that follows after the one when the documentation will have been approved of;
(ii) for the following years: 10 days before the expiry of the previous year.
The conditions that the applicant company should comply with:
The economical operators must prove:
the existence of the gambling activities as main object of activity; the existence of the approval from the police organisms granted to the legal representatives of the legal entity.
the gathering of the corporate equity subscribed and paid in the amount of minimum 30.000 Lei (approximatively 7000 Euro);
The legal representatives of the juridical entity must submit a declaration under their own responsibility stating that:
i) the economical operator has not been convicted by a final conviction decision, conviction for which rehabilitation did not happen;
ii) he is not in an incompatibility condition as this one is regulated by the law;
The legal representatives of the juridical entity must submit the criminal records certificates or other documents issued by the relevant authorities on whose jurisdiction the latest known domicile/headquarters is located, documents that state that no final conviction decision judicial ruling has been issued against any of the juridical entity’s legal representatives (conviction for which rehabilitation did not happen) in Romania or in a foreign state, on account of an offence stipulated by the gaming law or for some other offence purportedly made, for which an at least 2-year imprisonment penalty has been applied;
The operator will have submitted a request for obtaining the exploitation authorizations or such request is submitted at the same time.
The minimal number of gaming means (slot machines), for which the license may be requested is 75 electronic devices.
The Authorization
The authorization for operating slot machines is granted for each gambling mean (slot machine) for a period of 1 year and remains valid under the condition of payment the fees, as provided by law.
The value of the authorization fee is 2600 Euro (in RON equivalent) / year/ slot-machine.
Distinctively, the operators are obliged to pay the tax on vice, having the value of 400 Euro (in RON equivalent/year.
The authorisation tax is due is payable in advance for every quarter of the year, in 4 equal installments, each having the value of 650 Euro, in RON equivalent (in March, June, September and December).
If the authorisation is requested before the end of a quarter, the operator is obliged to pay the tax in advance, the regularisation of the tax be ing performed on the final payment.
For instance, if the authorization is requested and approved in December, the operator is obliged to perform the first payment no later than of 25th of January for the first quarter, the authorisation being valid from 1st of February until 31st of January of the following year.
The following payments are as follows:
No later than on 25th of March (for April, May, June);
No later than on 25th of June (for July, August, September) No later than on 25th of September (for October, November, December).
In the above-mentioned example, the initial payment will be allocated to the fiscal obligation due for February, March of the year when the authorisation is issued and January of the following month.
If the authorisation tax is paid in advance (the whole yearly amount), a bonification of 10% is granted to the operator.
For obtaining the slot-machines authorization, the economical operators must provide to the authority the followinng documentation:
l Documents attesting ownership or the right of the company to use the slot machines.
Please note that on the Romanian territory, transactions with gaming means are allowed only through companies holding a Class II license for this purpose; the restriction is not applicable for companies holding a gaming license. The operations are allowed also if performed by companies intending to request the gaming license (based on sworn declaration).
l Documents attesting registration of the locations where the slot machines are to be emplaced as subsidiaries (working locations) of the company
Slot- machines may be exploited in betting agencies, in such situation the maximum number of slot machines/ location allowed by the law being 5 electronic devices, or in specialized location, if a minimum number of 20 slot machines are emplaced in all locations situated in Bucharest or at least 12 slot machines, for the locations situated outside Bucharest.
l Rules of the games (for each game available on the slot machines), revealing the percentage of winnings granted to the players
l Internal Rules of the company, attesting the duties of the personnel directly involved in exploitation of the gambling activities
l Evidences of technical evaluation of the slot machines, issued by competent entities ( Romanian Bureau of Methrology or specialized entities, holding Class II license for the purpose)
l Documents attesting constitution of the guarantee fund.For covering the risk of failing to pay the obligations towards the consolidated general budget, the organisers shall create a guarantee fund for every slot machine, in favour of the territorial tax organism where they are registered.
The level of the guarantees for covering the payment failure risk is 167 Euro for each slot machine if the ownership is held by the applicant or 300 Euro for each slot- machine that the operator may use (based on rental agreement, joint venture agreement or similar). The maximum value of the guarantee fund is 60.000 Euro.
The gaming authority may request supplementation of the documents, depending on the situation of each applicant.
All applications for license and authorization are being analyzed during the meetings of the Supervisory Body of National Gambling Office, which held twice a month, usually on the second and the fourth Thursday.
