New rules for gambling, voted by the Senate. PSD decided to support the Coalition's measures at the last moment. AUR says that he also agrees / The Chamber of Deputies will basically make the decision

On Monday, the Senate was preparing to reject, as the first chamber referred, two proposals for legislative changes in the field of gambling. One of the proposals raises the age at which someone can enter casinos from 18 to 21 and the second prohibits the display of any gambling advertising between the hours of 6am and midnight. However, after the plenary debates, the projects passed.

Before the start of the meeting, PSD sources explained to HotNews that the party will vote against the laws. The rejection of the legislative proposals by the Senate would have come in the context in which they were proposed by the parliamentarians of the coalition: the majority from the PNL and USR, but also from the PSD, as shown on the Senate's website.

In the end, however, at the vote, after the plenary debates, the PSD senators voted for the two draft laws, that is, against the report rejecting the laws. PSD deputy Alexandru Ghigiu is among the signatories of the legislative amendments.

The two USR proposals were voted as follows: 97 votes for, 8 against and 2 abstentions for the first draft and 91 votes for, 9 against and 10 abstentions for the second draft.

PSD also wants the establishment of a commission to discuss legislative changes in the field of gambling, according to HotNews sources. If the law will be adopted by the Chamber of Deputies, practically online gambling and betting ads will only be able to be displayed during the night.

The PNL supported the projects but avoided saying who tried to block them

Before the vote, the president of the Senate, Mircea Abrudean (PNL) said that the PNL is “the supporter of the measures to reduce gambling advertising”.

“We will position ourselves on the same line, we will support the limitation measures,” said Abrudean.

Asked by HotNews who is blocking these projects, considering that they received a rejection report in the Legal Commission, Abrudean said that he did not know, because for the moment he had not seen the report of that commission.

USR: “In these hard times, with the last bit of money, people end up gambling away their last savings”

The vice-leader of the USR senators, Ștefan Pălărie, also said on Monday, before the vote, that his party fought “a consistent battle”, especially through the deputy Diana Stoica, for these projects to pass.

“We want minors, or, please, adults of civil code age, between 18 and 21 years old, to no longer be able to enter these gaming halls where they lose not only their money, but also their time and sometimes tragedies end up happening,” said Pălărie in a press conference.

“Also, we want public figures, who are normally models, inspirational people, to no longer be able to advertise gambling. And many other things that we want limited, otherwise not only is it difficult for us, but look at these hard times, people turn to God, turn to fate and with the last bit of money, sometimes they end up gambling the last savings, triggering, as I said, not only personal but also family tragedies”. he further explained.

USR MP Diana Stoica asked her colleagues during the Senate session to support the bill.

“The bill comes to protect young people in Romania, that there are no gambling ads between 6am and midnight. If we don't take these common sense measures, where we don't see celebrities making gambling ads anymore… This law is signed by colleagues from all parties. Please vote against the rejection report, to protect our children,” said the USR deputy.

The opposition supported the coalition's projects

Asked on Monday before the vote, the leader of the AUR senators, Petrișor Peiu, said that his party supports the two projects.

“We are in favor of raising the age of participation in these games of chance. We have supported this for a long time, I think we also had various projects in this regard, but in addition to what you mentioned, we proposed today to the other leaders of parliamentary groups that we make a committee to discuss the legislation related to games of chance to harmonize the points of view of the parties in the Senate, at least,” explained Peiu.

The projects have had the support of the entire governing coalition since submission

In November 2025, when the two projects were submitted to Parliament, MPs Diana Stoica (USR) and Raluca Turcan (PNL) said that they were supported by MPs from all the parties that form the governing coalition: PSD, PNL, USR, UDMR and the National Minorities.

One of the projects submitted then prohibits the access of young people under the age of 21 to gambling halls. Another bill submitted bans influencers from advertising for the betting industry and bans any kind of advertising between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and midnight.

Influencers are already banned from advertising gambling

Celebrities, athletes and influencers can no longer advertise gambling games, as of October 6, according to the Audiovisual Code, adopted by CNA. Here there were issues regarding determining who are opinion leaders or not, as reported by HotNews.

“The methodology will be established by the CNA. We had discussions with the CNA. We came to the conclusion that some measures taken by the CNA in audio-visual need to be taken into law”, explained Raluca Turcan, when asked by HotNews about how it will be determined who is an influencer and who is not.