Legislation
Romania – Bucharest politician wants Riga style gambling ban
By Phil - 3 April 2019
Romania’s General Councillor Catalin Lucian Iliescu wants to ban gambling in the capital of Bucharest except in a specially created zone called the ‘neighbourhood of gambling.’
Bucharest has around 1,250 gambling halls with around 13,000 nationwide. Mr. Iliescu wants to rid the city of the many slot halls located on the ground floor of apartment buildings as well as forcing them to be at least 200 meters away from churches, schools or other public institutions.
He said: “This area should be able to be constructed and arranged properly by the municipality and the spaces will be leased to third parties that carry out such activities. The advantages would be that the police and the control authorities would have an efficient job and that the state budget receipts would be adequate. On the other hand, it would also be an advantage for the players, because it would be real competition between the firms that own these gambling halls.”
The motion will have to be passed by the Bucharest General Council.
The suggestion follows the implementation of similar laws in Riga, the capital of Latvia, as well as Albania, Kosovo and of course Russia.
Florentin Pandele, the mayor of Voluntari, north of Bucharest, will put a similar ban to a referendum vote on May 26.
This year has already seen a raft of changes to the Romanian industry. A new two per cent tax on turnover came into effect at the turn of the year for online and land-based operators. In February, the government introduced a tax on customer deposits.
