Romania Blacklists 800 Illegal Gambling Websites

Romania’s National Gambling Office (ONJN) has blacklisted around 800 illegal gambling websites in one of its largest enforcement actions, as the regulator steps up efforts to tackle the country’s online gambling black market.

The latest action follows the addition of approximately 370 websites earlier under the current administration. This brings the total number of sites blacklisted during the current leadership to around 1,180, including Polymarket. Since ONJN was established in 2013, roughly 1,500 illegal gambling websites have been blocked.

New Tool Targets Clone Websites

The increase in enforcement has been supported by a new detection system designed to identify clone websites. These platforms operate across multiple domains while relying on the same underlying infrastructure, allowing ONJN to identify and target illegal networks more efficiently.

ONJN President Vlad-Cristian Soare described illegal online gambling as a challenge affecting Europe more broadly. He claimed that more than 70% of online gambling activity across the continent takes place through unlicensed operators.

Soare said Romania is responding by strengthening its legal framework, expanding digital supervision and investing in new monitoring technologies.

According to the ONJN president, recent legislative changes have given the regulator the power to order the removal of illegal online content. The authority is also developing additional monitoring systems with support from the Romanian Digitalization Authority.

ONJN Identifies Suspicious Transactions

The regulator also said that its digital transformation is not yet complete but has already produced findings involving suspicious transactions and possible manipulation of gross gaming revenue (GGR).

Those findings were referred to the relevant authorities earlier this year.

The latest blacklist expansion represents a significant increase in ONJN’s efforts to identify and restrict illegal online gambling operations, with new technology playing a central role in detecting networks operating across multiple domains.