The retroactive tax payment in the Romanian market has brought huge revenues to the Romanian Treasury. Especially since it was the Government’s stipulation that operators that are looking to operate legally on the territory of Romania and obtain a license, have to pay this retroactive tax payment first hand.
According to data that were made public by the Romanian authorities, online gambling operators have paid a tax of EUR 269 million in 2015, which is 71.3 percent more than in the previous year. Additionally, in 2015, the Romanian government has collected an extra EUR 70 million, revenues from license issuing taxes and licensing fees from the online gaming sector.
The surge in the revenues is due to the Government’s clause regarding the back tax which according to the new Romanian law, all operators that have accepted players during 2009 and 2015, have to pay a 20% tax on their incomes that were gained from Romanian players.
This wasn’t a new invention – the Spanish Government has made a similar step in the last minute, in 2013, the year they’ve regulated and liberalized their online gambling markets. Romania’s success rate will surely encourage other governments to introduce the mandatory payment of retroactive taxes upon the market entry condition. Such a scenario could mean severe consequences for operators that are looking to enter these emerging markets. Imagine if this will be the case in a Russian-sized market, where there are tens of millions of players who gamble online at operators which haven’t yet been blacklisted.
Since the opening of the Romanian market, 19 online licenses have been issued out of which 12 are head quartered and established in other EU Member States. Some large international operators, such as Bet365, William Hill or Bwin.Party, however, despite paying the retroactive tax, have been blacklisted by the ONJN(NOG – National Office for Gambling). We must mention the fact that two of these operators(bet365 and Bwin.Party) has went against the licensing rules and started accepting players before they were supposed to by the law.
Last month, the Romanian regulatory body has adopted an additional legislation, which brought an end to the temporary licensing for operators and has granted the full license for the current 19 opertors.
You can read the full contents of the Amendment here: https://eegaming.org/2016/03/16/romanian-gambling-market-update-march-new-amendments-implementing-rules/
Officials of SafeCharge(payment service) – which has recently announced its cooperation with SuperBet(Romanian sports betting service) – has announced that according to their data from Romania, out of the total population of 19.5 million people, more than 1 million count as active sports bettors, which wager more than 1 billion euros yearly. Football still remains the main and most popular sport to bet on in the Romanian market and it’s followed by tennis, boxing, ice hockey and greyhound racing.
