Romania’s gambling regulator, the ONJN, has finalised the contract for the development of a new self-exclusion IT solution to be rolled out nationwide.
The announcement comes from ONJN President Vlad-Cristian Soare, who shook hands with the leadership of the Bucharest-based National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI), which will be tasked with creation of the tool.
Replacing the existing technical standard, the new solution will implement a modernised infrastructure that allows for remote player self-exclusion through ID and biometric verification scans.
“I said from the beginning that self-exclusion will not remain a project on paper. It is a commitment that I carry out, step by step,” Soare said on LinkedIn.
The agreement is one part of a long list of ideas that the ONJN is working on implementing to improve Romania’s self-exclusion system, which safer gambling proponents have long argued is outdated and represents a risk to the population.
It was just recently that the ONJN began negotiations with Romania’s Ministry of Finance to approve an emergency ordinance – usually reserved for addressing urgent issues like economic or health crises – which would make it easier to enforce ONJN’s plans for a modernised self-exclusion system.
Among these are an increase in self-exclusion timeframe options, a more consolidated compliance framework for both land-based and online operators, mandatory deposit recoveries when non-compliance occurs, heightened sanctions, and increased prominence of self-exclusion information, alongside others.
Pressure to introduce emergency measures to curb problem gambling has also been increasing externally, specifically from the Romanian chapter of international NGO Save the Children, which has raised the alarm about rising rates of child gamblers.
The issue with gambling among minors was also officially confirmed by Romania’s political elite, with Education Minister Daniel David recently issuing a stark warning that the country does not have enough specialists to deal with the rising rates.
Part of the solution that Save the Children has proposed is the introduction of further restrictions to an already highly restricted advertising sector, which has been picked up in part by coalition member Save Romania Union. The party’s own proposition includes a ban on untargeted advertising and sports sponsorships.
All reforms are currently being reviewed in-depth by the Chamber of Deputies, with Romania likely to have a completely different gambling market by the end of this year.