A Romanian court has made a ruling confirming the decision of the Romanian Gambling Office that Polymarket will remain on its national blacklist. The court has rejected Polymarket’s request to suspend an earlier ruling issued by the ONJN, which found that Polymarket was operating without a valid license.
ONJN President Vlad Cristian Soare welcomed the outcome in a LinkedIn statement, saying:
Today we achieved a first important victory in the case of Polymarket. There has been a lot of speculation around this decision. In reality, the stake was not and is not only Polymarket. The real stake is to protect the legal framework that regulates gambling and prevent a dangerous loophole: redefining betting under the seemingly harmless name of ‘prediction platform’.
According to ONJN, the court’s decision upholds the authority of the Gambling Office and strengthens its legitimacy in taking action against Polymarket. Romania was one of the first jurisdictions to blacklist the platform in October 2025.
Since Romania blacklisted Polymarket, the platform has also been blacklisted by several other jurisdictions throughout Europe, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Switzerland, France, Portugal, Germany, and Italy.
Polymarket had its initial problems with the ONJN following what ONJN described as an “exploited growth” in activity during Romania’s 2025 election period, with total trading on Pepsin exceeding $600 million during the presidential election and $15 million in total from local elections in Bucharest.
The Office stated at the time:
It would be a reckless precedent to allow counterparty betting to be reclassified as trading.
The ONJN determined that Polymarket operates as a counterparty betting provider even though it has represented itself as a prediction market, because it allows customers to wager on the outcome of events and charges them a commission for doing so. Because of this finding, the ONJN determined that Polymarket is subject to existing gambling laws.
Soare reinforced this position, adding:
Whether you bet in lei or crypto, if you bet money on a future outcome, under the conditions of a counterparty bet, we are talking about gambling that must be licensed. The ONJN will not allow the blockchain to be turned into a screen for illegal gambling.
