Former ONJN President Vlad-Cristian Soare Defends Transparency Reforms and Responsible Gambling Funding
Former ONJN president Vlad-Cristian Soare details 16-month tenure reforms including QR codes, geolocation on machines, and a centralized self-exclusion registry. He defends the €5m Conscious and Free program against transparency criticisms and urges new leadership not to sideline problem gambling efforts. Comments follow his sudden departure after addressing a €900m tax gap.
SCCG Take — Leadership transitions at Romania’s ONJN risk stalling concrete transparency and self-exclusion projects. Sustained regulatory focus on these measures is required to protect vulnerable players beyond political cycles.
Vlad-Cristian Soare, former President of Romania’s National Gambling Office (ONJN), has outlined the transparency measures and responsible gambling steps taken during his time in office. Appointed on 17 April 2025, Soare served a 16-month tenure at the regulator while it addressed a €900 million tax shortfall identified in an independent audit. He was released from the role with no clear reason given at the time.
Soare implemented mandatory QR codes and geolocation tags on gaming equipment to identify the number of legal machines in operation. He also drove IT modernisation at the ONJN and the creation of a centralised self-exclusion registry accessible online nationwide. In an interview with Adevărul, as reported by SBC News, Soare addressed the interests his work may have disrupted. “If you ask me whose interests I disrupted, I believe the answer lies precisely in these measures – specifically, in the interests of those who stood to gain from a lack of digitalisation, an absence of transparency, oversight vulnerable to external influence, legislative interpretations favouring certain operators, or the persistence of mechanisms that allowed for the evasion of tax obligations,” Soare told the newspaper.
“I am not claiming to have solved every problem at the ONJN,” Soare added. “However, I did amend the legislation, make key decisions, implement specific measures, and leave behind concrete projects—some of which were ready for immediate rollout.”
Defending the Conscious and Free Programme
Soare launched the Conscious and Free programme, which allocated €5 million in direct government grants to support problem gambling initiatives. The current ONJN President, Valentin-Ioan Tomescu, has since ordered a full inspection of the programme over questions about transparency in the use of codes for recipients and funding commitments.
Soare explained that the coded publication of results was a deliberate procedural step to limit access by ONJN staff or management, with evaluation performed by independent experts. He noted that an operational issue existed around fitting the appropriate expenditure categories into the budget structure. Discussions with the Ministry of Finance produced a legislative solution to resolve it.
Soare’s direct message to the current leadership was clear: “I ask those at the ONJN not to turn individuals affected by gambling addiction into collateral damage of leadership changes. Although I am no longer the president of the ONJN, I have a public responsibility to explain what was accomplished and why I believe the institution’s work should not be abandoned.”
Reporting: SBC News
Generated by SCCG’s automated editorial system from published source reporting. SCCG Management holds editorial responsibility.
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