Romania Might Regulate Online Gambling

The Romanian Finance Ministry is looking into ways to regulate and authorize online gambling and will allow the setting up of a firm tasked with checking the money collection process, Finance Ministry secretary of state Bogdan Dragoi told MEDIAFAX Tuesday.

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Dragoi said Romania amended last year the law regulating traditional gambling and increased gambling authorization taxes, which triggered revenues totaling 550 million lei (EUR1=RON4.1756), compared to 120 million in 2008.

"After the law was amended, gambling revenues increased considerably (…) We are looking into ways to regulate online gambling, and, if we manage to control money collection, we will authorize them," said Dragoi.

Romanian law neither bans nor allows cross-border online gambling but forbids Romanian companies to organize such games.

Dragoi said he has no data regarding the value of online bets made by Romanian citizens on international gambling websites.

People close to the matter said last year's estimations show online bets made by Romanians nudge EUR500 million.

On the other hand, the European Commission wants to implement unitary regulations regarding cross-border online gambling.

Most online gambling companies are based or have their servers in Malta, the Isle of Man, Gibraltar or the Netherlands Antilles.

If the EC implements unitary online gambling regulations, the EU member states will compete to host online gambling companies, as they can attract considerable sums of money to national budgets.

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