The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) has urged Romania to implement a self-exclusion registry, making the call right from within Parliament itself.

EGBA’s Secretary General Maarten Haijer attended an event organised by the Romanian Online Gambling Association (AOJND) and held at the Romanian Parliament building in Bucharest. 

Speaking on national television, Haijer said that he’d like to see a national self-exclusion scheme adopted as “quickly as possible” in order to help those in need of it.

“We need to target a specific regulation that addresses prevention of harm in individuals rather than a very horizontal, one-size-fits-all regulation because this has proven to be not as successful as a more targeted one,” Haijer concluded.

At the event, Haijer was joined by representatives from the Danish gambling authority as well. Anders Dorph, Director of Spillemyndigheden, explained that Romania needs to change its view on the idea of gambling itself. 

“We need to focus on educating the people of Romania, so that they know what gambling is about. It’s about entertainment, it’s not about winning money. It’s like a cinema. You have to pay for entertainment. I think that’s a very important message to get out,” Dorph added.

Responsible European Gambling

After the event, EGBA issued an official comment on its website regarding the matter with self-exclusion in Romania, reminding that this has already been implemented across 17 EU member states.

According to the trade body, when pondering a potential adoption of such a framework, Romanian policy makers should apply it to all licence holders – both land-based and online operators.

Another key point was that the self-exclusion scheme should be made accessible through a ‘GDPR-compliant government website’, and that additional commitments should be taken for it to be seamlessly integrated within gambling platforms.

Also drawing from European best practices, EGBA added that such a scheme should make it a requirement for operators to remove self-excluded players from marketing databases, and that it must ensure that minimum and maximum self-exclusion periods are offered to customers.

Taking care of its players is the natural step going forward for Romania given the growth of online gambling in recent years – with the world of iGaming resting comfortably in each customer’s pocket wherever they go. 

The last market report from EGBA revealed that in 2024, the online gambling market in Europe was worth an estimated €13.5bn ($14.5bn), a number only poised to grow.

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