According to the ONJN, it found ads for blacklisted operators across the platforms of the tech giant.
ONJN, the Romanian gambling regulator, has written to Meta and Google. It asked them to improve monitoring of gambling advertising on their platforms. The regulator says it found ads from blacklisted operators. These ads were able to target Romanian players through Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, as well as in Google search results.
The regulator notes that Romanian law makes it illegal to enable unlicensed gambling through content distribution, payment, or IT services. Authorities can issue fines of up to 100,000 lei (€20,000) to both gambling operators and hosting platforms.
It called on the tech giants to take urgent action. This includes swift investigations into flagged campaigns and immediate suspension of paid promotions by unlicensed operators. It also asked for the disclosure of information about the accounts behind the content.
The Senate Legal Committee has advance a bull that would introduce regulations for a new gambling self-exclusion system in Romania. Now, the bill will move to a full debate on June 10.
The bill, proposed by Diana Stoica of the Save Romania Union (USR) Party, is classified as a consumer protection measure. The bill would require the creation of a new online gambling self-exclusion register. This register would be hosted on the ONJN’s website, the national gambling regulator. The bill introduces a minimum 12-month cooling-off period for indefinite self-exclusion. Those who opt out would also be referred to addiction support services.
Operators would have 24 hours to process exclusion requests. The ONJN would need to update its records within 48 hours. For now, operators would have to refund mistakenly allowed bets within 48 hours.
Operators who don’t comply could have their licensed suspended for six months. Authorities would publish statistics on self-exclusion.
