Principles and measures regarding the social responsibility of gambling Article from the series „Gambling practice”, by Anchidim Zagrean, vice-president ROMBET
The special regulations, regarding the administration of the state monopoly in Romania, provide for a series of restrictions, in what regards the right of organization and exploitation of gambling activity, imposing at the same time the compliance with the following principles:
a) the unitary, correct and non-discriminatory application of the legal provisions in force in the gambling field, taking into account the principles of legality, impartiality, the active role and availability;
b) the protection of minors or other vulnerable groups, from a social and economic point of view, in order to avoid their addiction to gambling;
c) the protection of the participants so that the gambling is organized in an honest, responsible and transparent manner;
d) assuring the compliance with the legal provisions applicable in the field;
e) the prevention of any possible interference with the sports results in order to protect the sports movement.
The administration of the state monopoly regarding the organization and exploitation of the gambling activity on the Romanian territory is carried out by the National Office for Gambling.
Attached to O.N.J.N. an activity was set up, financed entirely from own income, for the implementation of the measures regarding the responsible gambling, respectively for the prevention of the gambling addiction through:
– activities and programs for the protection of young people and gamblers against gambling;
– prevention and treatment of gambling addiction;
– responsible promotion and publicity;
– efficient and rapid settlement of the disputes between a game organizer and a gambler.
The implementation of these provisions is carried out under the conditions and in accordance with the procedure established by the order of the O.N.J.N. President, and the income is established from the licensed gambling organizers’ contributions.
The body designated by the law to administer this gambling state monopoly, has succeeded until now to establish only the concrete conditions in which it establishes its own income, by adopting:
– Order no. 35 from January 10, 2019, for the approval of the Notification model – enforceable title and Procedure regarding the notification method of the economic operators – licensed gambling organizers – for the annual retroactive contribution for the period 2015-2018;
– Order no.400 from 2019 regarding the approval of the decision model regarding the budgetary accessory obligations, representing the interest rates and delay penalties, of the procedure regarding the notification of the economic operators – licensed gambling organizers and of the payment notice for the annual contribution provided in art. 10 paragraph (4) from the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 77/2009 regarding the organization and exploitation of the gambling that is published on November 6, 2019 in the Official Gazette. 897.
It is worth noticing that, by this Order 400 of 2019, the legal term for the payment of these contributions is modified, although it is very clearly established by the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 77/2009, at article 10, paragraph 6, as follows:
“(6) The payment term for the amounts provided in par. (4) is December 15 of each year, and the term for the operators who have obtained the license after this date is upon the obtainment of their license.”
Principles and measures regarding the social responsibility of gambling Article from the series „Gambling practice”, by Anchidim Zagrean, vice-president ROMBET
It is easy to notice the fact that the second part, from paragraph 6, does not have practical applicability because all the licenses, in the gambling activity, come into force at the beginning of the month by way of the consequence, the legal payment term for the annual contribution, for all the economic operators, is December 15 of each year, for the current year, with recalculation, when applicable, for those who have been licensed for less than one year. On the other hand, the special law provides the obligation of anticipated payments, as an exception from the rule, only for the taxes due as a result of the application for the license for the organization and gambling exploitation authorization, while for all the other payment obligations are established payment terms subsequent to the period when the taxpayer deploys its activity.
In order to justify the changes to the payment deadline, counter-law, the administrator of this state monopoly used the provision from the Civil Code according to which: “The one who has adopted the norm is competent to do the official interpretation”, forgetting, on the one hand, that there is nothing to be interpreted here, and, on the other hand, forgetting that the norm regarding the payment deadline was adopted by the parliament and, therefore, it is there that the official interpretation should be done, if necessary.
From the desire to strengthen the justice of the opinion above, I can also point out here the provisions of the regulations regarding the legislative technique in the meaning that:
– the normative acts given for the execution of the laws, ordinances or decisions of the Government are issued within the limits and according to the norms commanding them;
– the legislative interventions for the clarification of the meaning of the legal norms are made by an interpretative normative act of the same level as the intended act, by interpretative dispositions included in a new normative act or by the modification of the disposition whose meaning needs to be clarified;
– the orders, the instructions and other such acts should be strictly limited to the framework established by the acts based on which they were issued and cannot contain the solutions that would contravene their provisions.
One may not forget the constitutional provision according to which in Romania, the observance of the Constitution, of its supremacy and of the laws is compulsory, therefore, the compliance with a law that assures the transparency of the decision is not optional.
We expect the essential part of the practical implementation of the principles and measures regarding the gambling social responsibility by the adoption of a procedure that may guarantee:
– that the decision-making process is open and transparent;
– that the citizens and the interested parties can make observations around the stages of the regulation process;
– That the specific actions start from actual data and from a good understanding of the impact they can have.
Article from the series „practice of gambling”, by Anchidim Zagrean, vice-president ROMBET
We’ll be back with other opinions, from the series „practice of gambling”, in the future edition of the magazine…
