Romania jackpot bribery probe puts ONJN and operators under pressure
Updated at 00:10 CET, 29/06/2026
Romania’s gambling market is under the spotlight after a disputed jackpot triggered a DNA (Direcția Națională Anticorupție, Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate) bribery probe involving ONJN (Oficiul Național pentru Jocuri de Noroc, Romania’s gambling regulator) officials, industry figures and a sitting mayor. All individuals and companies named in this article are presumed innocent and no court has delivered a final conviction.
How a jackpot complaint escalated into a DNA case
Romanian outlet Economica.net, citing sources at RomaniaTV, reports that the investigation started with a jackpot win of about 5.42 million lei (around 1 million euro) at a licensed venue back in 2023. The winner later complained that part of the prize had been moved through a card linked to an employee of the operator and filed a complaint with Romania’s National Gambling Office, ONJN. Another outlet, Business24.ro, previously ran but has since removed a similar article.
That complaint triggered administrative and financial checks into how the payout was handled. Documents seen by SiGMA News show that prosecutors believed those checks could lead to complementary sanctions, referrals to criminal investigators and referrals to the national anti money laundering office.
What court documents say
Documents seen by SiGMA News include a Romanian court order of 17 June 2026 and a working English translation (English version is a working translation only, not a certified translation of the court order). The order comes from the Bucharest Tribunal and rules on a DNA request for thirty-day pretrial detention for two defendants. Details are also available in summary on the official DNA website.
The judge stresses that this procedure does not decide guilt. It looks only at whether there is reasonable suspicion of corruption offences and whether detention is necessary and proportionate compared with lighter measures such as judicial control or house arrest.
The order summarises accusations that the first defendant made several payments to an ONJN secretary general in connection with documents, petitions and checks involving gambling operators. It also notes a 500 euro payment routed through the same official to another ONJN director, allegedly to speed up checks on documentation.
The same defendant is suspected of helping a second defendant promise 100,000 euro to the ONJN secretary general in the interest of an unnamed gambling company. According to the court order, prosecutors claim the aim was to ensure that checks opened after the jackpot complaint ended without heavy sanctions or referrals.
The judge records a staged sequence of cash transfers by a second defendant identified as R.D.M. First 45,000 euro. Then another 5,000 euro. Finally, a 50,000 euro handover, observed and recorded by DNA in a sting operation, shortly before the detention decision.
Which operator is involved is still contested
The court order uses initials for all individuals and never names the gambling operator involved in the compliance check.
Romanian TV and other local outlets, citing unnamed sources, have reported that the disputed jackpot and the follow up ONJN checks concerned a specific licensed gambling operator. Their coverage links the jackpot, the player complaint and the employee card issues to that brand, but those claims are based on anonymous sourcing and do not appear in the court documents or DNA communiqué.
One Romanian investigative outlet previously published an article that sought to identify the operator allegedly connected to the ONJN inspection at the centre of the bribery investigation. That article has since been removed from the publisher’s website. The operator concerned has publicly denied any involvement in the alleged bribery. SiGMA News has been unable to independently verify the allegations reported by third-party publications identifying any operator in connection with the investigation.
The court documents reviewed by SiGMA News do not identify any gambling operator, and open-source reporting remains inconsistent. Accordingly, SiGMA News does not identify any gambling operator in connection with the investigation reported in this Article.
For background on previous ONJN enforcement trends, see SiGMA’s earlier coverage of Romania blacklisting 30 unlicensed gambling sites.
Allegations around former ONJN president Odeta Nestor
Other Romanian outlets and iGaming Republic report that former ONJN president Odeta Nestor has been identified in DNA documents by the initials N.C.O. and placed in pretrial detention. She is a well-known figure in the Romanian gambling market and has held senior roles on the regulator and industry side.
According to iGaming Republic, prosecutors accuse her of bribery in continued form, complicity in taking bribes and instigating unauthorised access to confidential information. Between November 2025 and March 2026 she is alleged to have made three payments totalling 1,500 euro and 2,000 lei (around 380 euro) to an authorised collaborator at ONJN in connection with administrative procedures.
On 24 March 2026 she is alleged to have made a further 500 euro payment through the same collaborator to another ONJN director. On 3 April 2026 she is accused of persuading an ONJN official to give access to non public bank documents related to the jackpot winner’s transactions.
The court order seen by SiGMA News aligns with this structure. It describes successive payments to an ONJN secretary general, a 500 euro payment passed on to another director and efforts to obtain access to non public banking information about the jackpot winner.
None of these accusations has yet been proven in court. Nestor has not been convicted of any offence and benefits from the presumption of innocence.
How the jackpot strand connects to Mayor Ciprian Ciucu and Denise Rifai
Romanian media note that the ONJN and jackpot investigation was registered in August 2025 and later generated a separate corruption file opened in December 2025. That second file concerns Bucharest mayor Ciprian Ciucu and several businessmen in relation to alleged benefits tied to a real estate project.
According to iGaming Republic, DNA alleges that in November 2025 two businessmen offered electoral advertising and consultancy services that supported Ciucu’s campaign. In exchange, prosecutors claim they sought favourable treatment for planning documents on a residential scheme. A third businessman allegedly helped arrange the deal.
The same article reports that Denise Rifai, a popular Romanian TV journalist, appears as a suspect in that file, facing accusations of instigation and complicity in bribery. It cites Romanian media claims that she filed the complaint that helped advance the Ciucu strand and notes that she has publicly acknowledged knowing Nestor.
In an on air appearance on Romania TV, Rifai said that she does not appear in any criminal file and has not made any denunciation. She declined to comment further. Other outlets report that she attended DNA for questioning in relation to the broader probe but did not speak to the press when leaving.
Ciucu has been placed under judicial control, not detention. Local coverage quotes him as saying he will continue his term as mayor, will cooperate with prosecutors and rejects the accusations.
ONJN’s recent clean up narrative now under stress
ONJN’s current president Vlad Cristian Soare took office in April 2025 after a Court of Accounts audit highlighted major gaps in gambling tax oversight and potential unpaid taxes running into the billions of lei (hundreds of millions of euro equivalent). That report led to political pressure and calls for tougher supervision.
Under Soare, ONJN has highlighted a more assertive stance. The regulator has reported thousands of inspections, hundreds of blocked websites and significant fines and criminal referrals, including action against unlicensed online operators targeting local players.
If prosecutors ultimately prove that serving ONJN officials took bribes to influence a compliance check during this period, that would cut directly across the clean-up narrative. For now, those allegations remain to be tested in court. SiGMA News will continue to base coverage on court documents and official DNA communications rather than speculation. Until final judgments are delivered, all parties mentioned in this piece remain entitled to the presumption of innocence.
Editor’s note, 29 June 2026: This article was updated to remove the name of a specific operator that Romanian media previously linked to the ONJN inspection. The court documents seen by SiGMA News do not identify the operator, open sources conflict, and the operator concerned denies any involvement in the bribery allegations. References to those media reports have been retained only in summary form to reflect the contested nature of the public debate.
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