Romania ONJN Blacklists Record 800 Unlicensed Gambling Domains in Major Crackdown

ONJN Supervisory Committee Expands National Blacklist

Two ONJN meetings at the end of July produced an unusually large update to Romania’s gambling blacklist. On 31 July 2026, the National Office for Gambling (ONJN) said its Supervisory Committee had added approximately 800 illegal gambling sites to the national blacklist.

The additions more than double the previous record of around 370 domains set earlier in the same mandate. The 800 figure should be read with that in mind.

It is a domain count, not a count of 800 separate operators. ONJN says approximately 1,500 illegal sites were blacklisted between its establishment in 2013 and April 2025, and approximately 1,180 since the current mandate began.

Illegal iGaming Domains Blocked via Clone-Site Detection

ONJN attributes the scale of the action to a newly developed clone-site detection tool. According to the Office, it identifies platforms that keep the same underlying root and multiply through the use of different domains, the pattern that has made domain-level blocking so hard to sustain, since a blocked brand can resurface almost immediately on fresh addresses.

According to Soare, recent legal reforms have granted ONJN the authority to order the removal of illegal online content, while the regulator is also developing advanced monitoring tools with support from the Romanian Digitalization Authority.

The regulator added that, despite not yet completing its digital transformation, it has already identified suspicious transactions and potential manipulation of gross gaming revenue (GGR), with the findings referred to the relevant authorities earlier this year.

Romania Online Gambling Regulation and Eastern Europe Compliance

ONJN’s president said (translated from Romanian): ‘The black market is a systemic problem at European level. Over 70% of the European online gambling market consists of operators active on the black market.’ Soare said that with budgetary constraints, no scope to expand the staffing scheme, and difficulty attracting IT specialists on a net salary of approximately 6,000 lei per month, the only route open to the Office is adapting the legislation and accelerating its digitalisation.

Soare said more than 40 criminal complaints have been filed in recent months over unlicensed gambling activity. The regulator has been active on another front as well: promotion.

It says more than 200 orders have been sent to online platforms asking for illegal gambling content to be taken down. Google, Meta and TikTok were among those contacted, with Soare putting the response rate at about 98%. Soare concluded: ‘Today’s results show that the institution is exercising its authority, strengthening its control capacity, and taking important steps in the transition from a reactive approach to one based on technology, data, and rapid intervention.’