The practice of gambling in 2023
Continued fight of the “legislature” as well as the “executive” to close traditional gambling in Romania
Article from the series “Gambling Practice“, by Anchidim Zăgrean, FedBet Vice President and President of ROMBET
The autumn of 2023 has come and the organizers of gambling in Romania are forced to watch helplessly as two of Romania’s state powers, namely the “legislative power” and the “executive power”, compete with each other through the proposals they make, in order to the adoption of measures that will ultimately lead to the disappearance of traditional gambling. The seriousness of such expected measures is represented by the fact that no one proposes, before they produce effects, to carry out checks, through analyses, studies or research, to find out what the effects of such measures will be on: the destination of the goods as well as of the facilities in the locations to be closed and at what value are the losses to be recorded by the affected economic operators; establishing appropriate measures in order to recover some investments made, for the legal operation of these locations, after establishing their level; what is the fate of the contracts concluded, by the owners of premises, for their rental, with those who exploit this sector of activity; what happens to the employees, from these locations, who have concluded, with these employers, employment contracts for an indefinite period; what is happening and what are the values of the contracts of those who provide the services necessary for the legal operation of the existing locations, but which are to be closed; how will these measures influence the activities: mass media, social, cultural or sports, for which there are already concluded advertising or sponsorship contracts, with gambling organizers and, as a result of these measures, the contractual clauses will no longer be able to be fulfilled, etc.
Let’s see, further, how exactly the two representative powers of the Romanian state propose to intervene in the activity of gambling and what are the expected changes:
1. “The legislative power” is to adopt, as quickly as possible, the draft law, voted unanimously in the Senate, located there under the number L 312/2023, and then sent, for the decisive vote, to the Chamber of Deputies, under the number PL- x 495/2023, and the legislator, through his representatives, proposes the following:
a) Prohibition of self-excluded or undesirable persons on the premises of gambling venues;
b) The license to organize gambling must be granted according to the number of inhabitants, proven by a certificate issued by the local public administration authority, so that there is at most one work point per 20,000 inhabitants;
c) The existence of the unique object of activity, respectively, the organization of gambling;
d) The central computer system of the organizer must have a system for registering and identifying the participants in the game, as well as a system for keeping and transmitting in real time to a mirror server and a safety server, located on the territory of Romania and placed free of charge at the disposal of O.N.J.N., of simultaneous gambling sessions, of each participation fee placed by each player, as well as the winnings paid to each player.
The central computer system must obligatorily ensure the automatic recording, in real time, of all transactions, receipts and payments made in relation to the players, as well as other financial operations, in the security server and transmit centralizing reports periodically in the server in mirror, at the disposal of O.N.J.N.;
e) The proposed space is located no more than 50 m from the territorial limit of the city/municipality or commune, including the municipality of Bucharest, as provided for in art. 95 of the Government’s Emergency Ordinance no. 57/2019 regarding the Administrative Code and the obligation to hold the location permit, issued by the local council of the competent administrative-territorial unit;
f) The space proposed for authorization is not located less than 300 m from an educational establishment, including its related campuses, a culture, art, health, social, religious and other similar establishment or within their premises; it is forbidden to carry out gambling in spaces which, due to their location, would lead to the obstruction of traffic or to the limitation of free access to other locations of interest (entrances to buildings, pedestrian passages, public transport stations, etc.);
g) In localities with less than 5,000 inhabitants, no license to operate gambling may be granted;
h) These provisions do not apply to the premises where the traditional and remote lotto games, luck, luck plus and super luck, express and lotteries, operated by the Romanian Lottery, are held;
i) The maximum number of gambling devices that can be exploited by the same economic operator is 20 slot machines;
j) Prior to starting the activity within a locality, the economic operator licensed under the conditions of this emergency ordinance will inform, within 5 days, by address, the competent local public administration authority about the start of the activity, communicating the date of the start of the activity and sending it copies of the gambling license and authorization. The conditions that must be met by the locations where the gambling is operated, the technical conditions that must be met by the means of the game, the conditions related to the game regulations and the internal regulations in order to grant the authorization to operate the gambling, as well as the obligations of the organizers in order to maintain their validity are established by the methodological rules of application;
k) Licensed gambling operators have the obligation to comply with the new provisions, within 60 days from the date of its entry into force;
l) Within 3 months, from the date of publication in the Official Gazette, the Government will appropriately modify the methodological norms for the implementation of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 77/2009.
m) Authorization of gambling activities by local public authorities.
2. “The executive power”, for its part, intends to intervene in the activity of gambling, proposing the adoption of an emergency Ordinance, which is not assumed, but which circulates in the public space, and the proposed measures mainly aim at:
a) The obligation to register in Romania a commercial company that requests a license and authorization for the organization and exploitation of gambling in Romania (including online);
b) The organization and exploitation of gambling to be carried out exclusively by the license and authorization holder, the possibility of organizing and exploiting gambling also being eliminated by persons who are not licensed or authorized, on the basis of a contract, with a holder of license and authorization;
c) Elimination of temporary gambling;
d) Elimination of limited-risk slot-machine gambling;
e) Maintaining the obligation to identify the persons who enter the gambling venue, but the obligation to keep the register of undesirables and self-excluded persons is transferred to ONJN;
f) Payment of the authorization fee is also monthly for casinos, poker clubs and slot machines, but it is due in advance, for the following month, but it is possible to benefit from a 10% bonus if the fee is paid annual advance;
g) Alcoholic beverages cannot be sold in specialized locations and they cannot have direct access to a trader;
h) The Jackpot must be downloaded to the credit of the gambling machine and the conditions for establishment and granting must be entered in the Game Regulations, approved before implementation;
i) Substantial increase in contributions to responsible gambling made available to ONJN, but also a considerable increase in annual fees as well as the guarantees that must be set up.
t remains to be seen, as the legislature or the executive adopts these projects, how the third power will behave in the state, respectively the judiciary, under the conditions in which the operators affected by these measures will request its intervention. These actions, for the intervention of a judicial power, must prove the fact that they were harmed in a right of theirs or in a legitimate interest, requesting the cancellation of the measures, recognition of the claimed right or legitimate interest and reparation of the damage caused to them, as a result of these brutal interventions, by disregarding fundamental rights and freedoms, guaranteed both by the Romanian Constitution and by European or international norms, by the fact that:
a) The provisions adopted are unclear, contradictory and incomplete, which makes it impossible to apply them uniformly;
b) The provisions adopted affect the principle of legal security, by the fact that they create uncertainty and instability in legal relations;
c) The provisions adopted are retroactive, applying to facts or legal situations produced before their entry into force;
d) The provisions adopted do not respect the principle of proportionality, as they are not necessary to achieve the intended purpose;
e) The adopted provisions apply a different treatment to private capital compared to state capital, which contravenes the principle of equality before the law.
We’ll be back with other opinions in the next issue of the magazine…
