Gambling will be eliminated only in localities with less than 15,000 inhabitants

The PSD and the PNL would like to ban the gambling halls, but not at all. From the ambitious project banning gambling in localities, it came down to a slimmer form of the law, fast-forwarded in ad-hoc committees. Gambling will be eliminated only in localities with less than 15,000 inhabitants. The opposition accuses the “deal” between the Coalition and the gambling industry.

The plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies adopted, on Tuesday, the draft law on gambling with 243 votes “for”, four abstentions, and two deputies did not vote. According to this project, the commercial space where the operator exploits games of chance, if it has slot machines, must be located in an administrative-territorial unit with a population greater than 15,000 inhabitants. Proof of the number of inhabitants is provided by a certificate issued by the town hall in whose territorial radius the proposed space is located.

“It is prohibited to provide, directly or indirectly, activities related to gambling to entities that do not hold a class 1 license issued by ONJN and that allow access to gambling by game participants who access the gaming platform from the territory of Romania and/or game participants who are Romanian citizens who do not have tax residency in another state. The technical measures necessary to prevent and combat the access of participants to games of chance in violation of the provisions of this paragraph will be established by order of the ONJN president, within 90 days from the date of entry into force of this emergency ordinance. Until the adoption of the order of the ONJN president provided by this paragraph, the economic operators who hold the class II license issued by the ONJN have the obligation to implement any available technical measures to prevent and combat the access of participants to gambling in violation of the provisions of this paragraph”, it also states the project.

Deputy Diana Stoica (USR), declared in plenary that it is very interesting and PNL had no opinion on this bill. “My colleagues from USR and I initiated this fight almost two years ago. Gambling addiction is the addiction with the highest suicide rate. The scourge of gambling does not exist only in localities with 15,000 inhabitants. Scams destroy millions of families throughout the country. We voted for this law, but until we adopt the correct solutions, we leave more than half of Romanians unprotected,” Stoica pointed out.