Official data: Romanians bet at gambling more than they spent on accommodation in all hotels in the country
In January – June 2025, he claims the National Institute of Statistics, at the request of Hotnews, the Romanians played about 5.5 billion lei for gambling: sports bets, lotteries, online casinos. The amount exceeds the total of the tourists' accommodation expenses in hotels throughout the country, these being 5 billion lei.
We spend online with the card, at online gambling, 3.1% of the figure playing worldwide, given that Romania represents 0.33% of the global economy. In other words, we are 10 times more active at gambling than in creating economic value.
The first alarm signal was pulled in June 2024 by Florian Neagu, the director of the Financial Stability Directorate of the NBR. Quoted by Ziarul Financiar, Neagu said that most online transactions made by Romanian citizens with cards are made to participate in gambling.
5.5 billion means the summary budget of justice and culture ministries
Hotnews has asked the National Institute of Statistics to the amounts spent in the first 6 months of this year on gambling.
Between January-June 2025, the Romanians played about 5.5 billion lei at the gambling, which is equivalent to the cumulative annual budgets of the Ministries of Justice and Culture.
The business formula of gambling is based on the statistics that the overwhelming majority of these amounts put into play are won “house” and lost “by players”. The amounts reported by statistics include both the online games (to which the NBR was referred) and those of the physical agencies of “tricks”, bets and casinos.
Compared to Horeca, for example, the amount spent on gambling by Romanian citizens exceeds the total of tourists accommodation in hotels throughout the country, the latter being 5 billion lei for the first 6 months of 2025.
Compared to the first 6 months of last year, when 6.2 billion lei were spent at the gambling, this year there is a slight recoil of the income of the gambling industry: 5.5 billion lei.
How are the countries around us
Throughout the year 2025, the Hungarians estimate that they will spend about 1.56 billion euros on gambling, including casinos, sports bets, lottery and other forms of gambling. Of these, only the online gambling sector will generate over 563 million euros.
For Bulgaria, the annual expenses with gambling (the total market income) are estimated at about 707 million euros in 2025, and the online sector total about 561 million euros. Bulgaria has over 1 million active online players, and the industry contributes substantially to the national budget through taxes and commissions (over 102 million euros in 2024).
In Europe, Italy is the largest gambling market, generating gross gambling (GGR) revenues of 21 billion euros in 2023. The United Kingdom follows with 19.8 billion euros. Followed by Germany and France.
As for the online gambling sector, however, the United Kingdom is in front of 11.1 billion euros in 2023 – long before Italy, which registered 4.6 billion euros, and France, which registered 3.8 billion euros.
The situation changes when the income with the size of the population or the average expenses per adult is compared.
Italy, the giant gambling on the continent, ranks only in fourth place, with an average of 437 euros spent per adult. The United Kingdom is ranked sixth, with 377 euros per adult. Smaller countries, with strong gambling cultures – such as Cyprus (543 euros), Iceland (504 euros) and Ireland (473 euros) – lead the continent to gambling inhabitants. Romania has between 120 and 150 euros per capita on the inhabitants spent on gambling, according to sources in the gambling market, depending on the criterion used for calculation.
