Former Prime Minister among those to call for gambling ad ban in Romania
Ludovic Orban and 13 other politicians point to correlation between gambling-related harm and marketing in legislative proposal
A group of cross-party Romanian politicians, including former Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, has tabled legislation to ban gambling advertising in the market.
The 14 politicians, including members from the National Liberal Party, the Force of the Right and the Right Alternative, have put forward the motion to Romania’s Chamber of Deputies with a view to outlaw advertising.
Among the signatories is former Prime Minister Orban, who founded the Force of the Right as a splinter party from the National Liberal Party in 2021.
The centre-right coalition of politicians claim that advertising plays an important role in recruiting new customers while also influencing gambling behaviour and encouraging customers to gamble more.
The group have also said advertising also increases the probability of a relapse among those who had previously suffered from gambling addiction.
In the statement submitted to the Chamber of Deputies, signatory Ionel Dancă compared gambling advertising to tobacco and said the uptick in young people gambling was directly linked to advertising.
Dancă also cited a growing petition among Romanians, which, at the time of writing, has garnered more than 155,000 backers to ban gambling advertising in the market.
Dancă highlighted case studies to support his argument, pointing to Moldova’s decision to prohibit gambling advertising last year and the recent CAP regulations which banned firms from using brand ambassadors that would appeal to young people in the UK.
The Chamber of Deputies has yet to lay out a timeline in terms of legislative procedure for the proposal.
Elsewhere, Romanian operator Superbet has committed to a responsible gambling advertising strategy with a plan to remove all commercial out-of-home marketing in Romania by the end of H1.