CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT IN THE GAMBLING INDUSTRY

Congratulations on the appointment of the President Gheorghe Gabriel Gheorghe! He was in the first management team of ONJN, the one that laid the foundations of modern gambling legislation. We take this opportunity to briefly recall some of the aspects that need to be considered in order to avoid the Romanian traditional gambling market being blocked.

Regio Metro Cert

Up to 2016, on the Romanian territory, the technical checks of the gambling means were carried out exclusively by the Romanian Office of Legal Metrology (ROLM). Since 2016, according to art. 19 para. (1) and para. (4) of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 77/2009, “the technical inspections of all machines” … – for traditional games- … “will be undertaken by the Romanian Office of Legal Metrology or conformity assessment bodies (CABs), hereinafter referred to as specialized companies in the field, licensed by O.N.J.N., based on “minimum technical conditions of verification … to be established by Order of the President of O.N.J.N.”. According to the provisions of art. 19 para. (6) of the same GEO No 77/2009, “for the first year of application … the technical inspections … will be undertaken in compliance with the technical standards in force at the date hereof [A/N: i.e. from 30.12.2014 – date of entry into force of GEO 92/2014 amending GEO 77/2009 and until 30.12.2015, i.e. for “the first year”] and at the tariffs applied by the Romanian Office of Legal Metrology on the same date”.

In period January 2016 – January 2021, (more precisely 06.01.2021 date of publication in the Official Gazette of the Order of the President of O.N.J.N. no. 404/2020, the technical draft of which was notified to the European Commission on 22.07.2020, under no. 2019/361/RO-H10), due to the lack of concern on the part of the O.N.J.N.’s management, the “minimum technical conditions for inspecting the gambling means” were not published, which produced the consequences that have practically generated the current state of affairs, namely:

1)         In the mentioned period, the specific gambling field was incompletely regulated in Romania, and the Romanian national accreditation body – RENAR, a body operating on the basis of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 setting out the requirements for accreditation and market surveillance relating to the marketing of products and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 339/93, a body governed by private law recognised by the Government of Romania through G.O. no. 23/2009 on the accreditation activity of the conformity assessment bodies as a body of public utility, with the specific task of issuing accreditation regulations/schemes for the fields regulated in Romania, in accordance with the provisions of art. 8, para. (1) of the GO no. 23/2009 and of point 4 of Policy P-19 on accreditation in regulated areas, RENAR, in its capacity of national accreditation body in Romania, has NOT been able to fulfil the role granted to it by law, namely to draw up, submit for approval to the competent public authority O.N.J.N. respectively to publish the specific accreditation scheme on the basis of which CABs can be accredited, according to the harmonized ISO 17025 or 17020 standards, in the regulated field specific to gambling, not being approved by order of the President of O.N.J.N., and published the “Minimum technical conditions for the inspection of traditional gambling means”, the requirements of which formed the basis for the drawing up of the accreditation scheme.

Obtaining an ISO 17020 or ISO 17025 accreditation in the regulated field specific to gambling was impossible to achieve due to the lack of the “Minimum technical conditions for the inspection of traditional gambling mean”, as they have not been published by the competent authority O.N.J.N. in the period 2016-2021. According to the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 art.7 letter b), the Romanian CABs could apply to other national accreditation bodies in EU member states where accreditation schemes in the voluntary field specific to gambling were available [ed. note: e.g. the CABs have resorted to national accreditation bodies in Italy – ACCREDIA, in the Netherlands – RVA and in the UK – UKAS, as few national accreditation bodies in EU had accreditation schemes available for gambling, due to the particular specificity of this sector], in an attempt to obtain cross-border accreditation in the field of gambling from one of these bodies. In all these cases, in order to formally start the accreditation process in the field of gambling (because it was incompletely regulated by O.N.J.N. in Romania) the national accreditation bodies in other EU Member States requested the CABs to obtain a formal statement from the Romanian national accreditation body – RENAR that it “does not undertakes accreditation in relation to conformity assessment activities for which accreditation is requested”, statement that RENAR refused to issue, on the grounds that it could make a such accreditation on the Romanian territory, but it is awaiting the “minimum technical conditions for the inspections of gambling means” to be published by O.N.J.N.., after which it will draw up the accreditation scheme in the regulated area and will accredit all applicant conformity assessment bodies on the basis of this accreditation scheme, in accordance with the legal provisions (GO no. 23/2009 on the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies, as subsequently amended and supplemented).

2)         In order to comply with Art. 8 para. (1) of GO no. 23/2009, which states that: “where, in application of existing Community or national legislation, a regulatory authority decides to use accreditation for the purpose of verifying the competence of conformity assessment bodies, and where justified, the national accreditation body (RENAR) shall develop specific accreditation schemes established with the authority concerned” and for the purpose of developing the accreditation scheme in the regulated field specific to gambling, RENAR has concluded with the regulatory authority O.N.J.N., in June 2019, an Agreement/Memorandum/Protocol of Collaboration, on the occasion of which the national accreditation body in Romania – RENAR was designated by O.N.J.N. – according to the requirements of the applicable legislation in force, namely GO no. 23/2009, for drawing up the Accreditation Schemes.

3)         Despite the above-described situation, and although it has NOT yet been published the accreditation scheme in the regulated field specific to the gambling means, O.N.J.N. in order not to block in Romania the market segment specific to conformity assessment bodies of gambling means, has licensed in the period 2016 – present, conformity assessment bodies (6 in total since May 2016), based on:

• ISO 17025 or 17020 accreditations obtained for the voluntary domain, there being no accreditation scheme available/published at national level for the regulated domain specific to gambling;
• the documentation provided for in ANNEX 6b) of the methodological rules published in GD 111/2016 and entitled Documents required to obtain the license for the organization of class II gambling, respectively according to point VIII of ANNEX 6b);
• the documentation which is proof of fulfilment of the conditions referred to in GD 111/2016, art. 149, where, in para. (1), let. b) and c), the explicit requirements are provided.

With the issuance of Order 404/2020 of the President of the O.N.J.N., the situation of conformity assessment bodies which, at the date of publication of Order 404/2020, held a valid class II licence issued by the O.N.J.N. was also regulated. The conformity assessment bodies licensed by the O.N.J.N. in the period 2016 – 06.01.2021 have been granted (according to art. 22 and art. 23 of Chapter III of the Annex to Order no. 404/2020) a transition period of 12 months from the date on which the national accreditation body in Romania – RENAR will publish the Regulation/Accreditation Scheme in the regulated field specific to gambling, drawn up on the basis of the requirements contained in Order 404/2020, a period necessary for conformity assessment bodies accredited in accordance with ISO 17025 or 17020 in the voluntary field and licensed by O.N.J.N. until 6 January 2021, to be accredited according to ISO 17025 or ISO 17020 in the regulated field specific to gambling, in order to comply with the new requirements.

For 5 (five) years, i.e. from January 2016 to January 2021, O.N.J.N. has NOT issued the President’s Order approving the minimum technical conditions for the inspection of traditional gambling means, conditions necessary for the drafting, approval and publication of the accreditation scheme for conformity assessment bodies, in order to fully regulate the field of gambling, this regulatory order being published only on 6 January 2021. Later Order 404 was amended by Order no. 86/2021 of the President of O.N.J.N. published in the Official Gazette on 30 June 2021.

In art. 1, para. 6 of Order 86/2021, by amending Chapter II, Section 1, paragraph 7, by subparagraphs 7.4.3.3 – 7.4.3.6, 4 (four) new technical requirements “are add”, of interest to CABs being the fact that Order 86/2021 shortens the implementation schedule originally envisaged. By changing the initial period of “12 (twelve) months from the date of publication of the accreditation scheme” into a new fixed period of “no more than 24 months from the date of entry into force” of Order 86/2021, i.e. until 30 June 2023.

As it was inevitable that the traditional gambling market would be blocked, Order no. 109 of 28 June 2023 amending Order no. 86/2021 of the President of the National Gambling Office amending and supplementing the Annex to Order no. 404/2020 of the President of the National Gambling Office approving the minimum technical conditions for the inspection of gaming means extended the deadline to 01.01.2024.

During this time, the interim management of the Office has not taken any steps to solve the problems faced by the CABs, and the following should be noted:

• the fact that even to date, as the regulatory authority in the field of gambling, O.N.J.N. has NOT approved the accreditation scheme (the reasons for this are unknown), drawn up by RENAR and communicated to the Office since 27 July 2021, an accreditation scheme which is the mandatory basis for obtaining accreditation in the regulated field of gambling,
• the duration of the accreditation process in the specific regulated field of gambling, which is usually a minimum of 12 months, with no certainty that this duration could not be exceeded, according to the documents of the Romanian national accreditation body – RENAR.

Change of the benchmark against which the time interval is calculated and by sine die postponing the Office’s approval of the accreditation scheme already drawn up by the Romanian national accreditation body – RENAR on the basis of the minimum technical conditions for the inspection of the gambling means, by the amendments made by Order 86/2021, the implementation deadline initially granted in Order 404/2020 has expired.

The activity carried out by the conformity assessment bodies of gambling means in Romania, licensed by O.N.J.N. prior to the date of publication of Order 86/2021, including ROLM, will be seriously disrupted, as from 01.01.2024, due to not obtaining accreditation in the specific regulated field of gambling means.

The Office should urgently endorse the “Scheme of accreditation in the regulated field specific to gambling means”, so that it can be published by RENAR and it would also be necessary to amend Order 404, by repealing the deadline established by Order 86 and Order 109 and establishing a minimum period of 18 months from the publication of the Scheme, for compliance of all the CABs and ROLM (to obtain RENAR Accreditation in the regulated field).