The practice of gambling in 2023
Bills proposing the closure of traditional gambling in Romania
Article from the series “Gambling Practice“, by Anchidim Zăgrean, FedBet Vice President and President of ROMBET
g) Prior to starting the activity within a locality, the economic operator licensed under the terms 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 games are 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 for the application of this emergency ordinance;
h) From the date of publication in the Official Gazette of this law, licensed gambling operators have the obligation to comply with the new provisions;
i) Within 3 months from the date of publication in the Official Gazette of this law, the Government will appropriately amend Government Decision no. 111/2016, for the approval of the Methodological Norms for the implementation of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 77/2009.
2. The draft law, under debate in the Senate, under the number B320/2023, signed by AUR parliamentarians, which has the following provisions:
a) The state can grant the right to organize and operate gambling activities under the conditions of this emergency ordinance, based on a license to organize gambling games for each type of activity, as they are classified by this emergency ordinance, and gambling exploitation authorization, nominal and time-limited documents, which will be directly exploited by the license holder, with the mention that casino (traditional game) and slot-machine type games can only be played in locations located on the territory of tourist resorts of national or local interest, listed in Annex no. 2 of Government Decision no. 377/2020;
b) The state will grant the right to organize and operate gambling activities for slot-machine type games and in locations other than those located on the territory of tourist resorts of national or local interest, provided that the maximum stake provided by the machines not be higher than 0.5 eur (2.5 Iei).
3. The draft law, under debate in the Senate, under the number L257/2023, signed by USR parliamentarians and minorities, which has the following provisions:
a) The space proposed for authorization is not located in administrative-territorial units with a population of less than 5,000 inhabitants. In these administrative-territorial units, slot machine type games cannot be exploited either by means of electronic devices awarding limited risk gains;
b) The space proposed for authorization is not located in a residential building or in a mixed-use building, defined according to Law no. 227/2015 on the Fiscal Code, with subsequent amendments and additions;
c) The space proposed for authorization is located at least 300 meters from another specialized location where gambling activities are carried out;
d) The provided provisions shall be applied within one year from the entry into force of this law.
We will return with other proposals, of this kind, in the next issue of the magazine…
