Romania On Track for Legalized Online Gambling

Posted on: April 7, 2013, 05:16h.

Last updated on: April 15, 2013, 10:31h.

While the U.S. scrambles state-by-state to finally get legalized online gambling in place, you will all be much relieved to know that over in Eastern Europe, the legal beagles aren’t asleep at the wheel either; Romania is hard at work creating a National Gambling Office (NGO), which will oversee the regulatory process for online gambling in that country.

Ah yes, Romania: land of the reputed Count Dracula’s castle, Europe’s largest population of brown bears, and soon, somewhere you can gamble online to your hearts content without a qualm. It doesn’t get much better than that. Now you can take your tablet down to the Black Sea and play casino games while your kids frolic in the waves.

European Commission Displeased

It’s actually been two years since initial online play legislation was passed, but a monitoring and reporting agency had yet to be created, which has stalled the process up until now.

Beyond that, however, the European Commission (EC), the executive body of the European Union (EU) that oversees everything to do with laws affecting the EU as a whole, has taken umbrage with some of the initial provisions of the legislation to date. The most pressing of these was a requirement that any EU-licensed online gaming operators have a legal presence in Romania, as well as one stating that online gaming licenses would only be granted to those companies with either a direct or indirect shareholder or partnership connection in a Romanian land-based casino. (As that’s pretty much the same way they set these things up in the U.S., we’re not sure what all the ruckus is about with that provision, but hey, that’s just us.)

Taking a Bite Out of This Market

Although these measures don’t seem all that draconian to us, apparently they don’t sit too well with some other international operators; maybe they’re afraid of vampires late at night in their casinos. Anyway, apparently, some of the EU’s objections have been addressed, such as appeasing them with revised tax calculations. It will all start to unfold after April 15, as that’s when the NGO will kick off officially, and businesses will be able to apply for online gaming licenses in Romania.

Hopefully, it won’t be a bloody mess.