One number tells you nothing
Most review sites give a casino 9.4 out of 10 and leave it there. Ours used to as well, and we were wrong to. A single score hides the thing you actually need to know, which is what is wrong with this one. A casino can have a brilliant game library and a withdrawal limit that means a real win takes eight months to pay out. Averaged into one figure that reads 8.7, and tells you nothing.
So we publish five scores. A casino can score 9 for games and 4 for paying out, and you will see both.
We also do not use the top of the scale as a default. If every casino on a site scores 9.3 or above, the scale is decoration. Ours are spread, and some of the casinos we list score badly in places. We would rather tell you that than lose the point of reviewing them.
1. Paying out — the one that matters most
What we measure:
- Withdrawal limits per day, week and month. This is the most under-reported number in casino reviews and the one that causes the most anger. A £5,000 monthly cap means a £50,000 win is paid over ten months, and the terms usually let them keep changing it.
- Processing time stated in the terms, and whether there is a pending or reversal period during which you can re-gamble the money you asked to take out.
- Verification — when they ask for ID. Before your first deposit is a good sign. After your first big win is a bad one.
- Fees deducted from withdrawals, and the minimum withdrawal relative to the minimum deposit. If you can deposit £10 but not withdraw under £50, that is a trap for small players.
| Score | What it means |
|---|---|
| 9–10 | No withdrawal cap, or above £/€50,000 a month. Paid inside 24 hours. No fees. ID checked at sign-up. |
| 7–8 | Cap above £/€10,000 a month. Paid inside 72 hours. No fees on crypto. |
| 5–6 | Cap £/€2,500–10,000 a month, or routinely 3–5 working days. |
| 3–4 | Cap under £/€2,500 a month, or a reversal period longer than 24 hours. |
| 1–2 | Cap under £/€1,000 a month, fees on every withdrawal, or ID demanded only once you win. |
Automatic mark-down: if the terms let the casino pay a jackpot in instalments without stating the instalment size, this score is capped at 4 however good everything else is.
2. Bonus fairness
Bonuses are where casinos hide the cost. We read the terms, not the banner.
- Wagering requirement, and whether it applies to the bonus only or to deposit + bonus. 35x on a bonus is normal. 35x on deposit + bonus is nearly double the work for the same headline number.
- Maximum cashout. A “300% up to £3,000” offer with a £100 max cashout is not a £3,000 offer. We state the max cashout next to every bonus.
- Game weighting — which games count towards clearing it, and at what percentage.
- Maximum bet while wagering. Breach it by 10p and they can void everything. We publish the limit.
- Expiry, and excluded countries and payment methods — some casinos void bonuses for players who deposited by a particular method without saying so on the offer page.
| Score | What it means |
|---|---|
| 9–10 | Wagering 25x or less on bonus only, no max cashout, 7+ days, clearly stated max bet. |
| 7–8 | Wagering up to 40x on bonus only, max cashout 10x the bonus or better. |
| 5–6 | Wagering up to 40x on deposit + bonus, or max cashout between 5x and 10x. |
| 3–4 | Wagering above 50x, or max cashout under 5x the bonus. |
| 1–2 | Max cashout under £100, or terms we judge deliberately misleading. |
Automatic mark-down: any bonus whose headline value cannot actually be won because of the max cashout gets called out in the review text, not just scored.
3. Games
- Number of games, and how many are genuinely distinct rather than re-skinned.
- Studios present. We name them. A casino carrying Pragmatic Play, NetEnt, Play’n GO and Games Global is a different proposition from one carrying only in-house titles.
- Live dealer coverage and the provider behind it.
- Provably fair originals — crash, dice, mines, plinko — and whether the fairness can actually be verified.
- Whether your country can see the whole library. This matters and almost nobody reports it: several operators hide part of the NetEnt catalogue from Canadian players because of supplier licensing, not because of the casino. You can register and deposit and still find games missing. We flag it where we know.
- Demo play available without an account.
4. Banking
- Currencies, including whether yours is supported or you are converted at their rate.
- Crypto supported, and whether it is held as crypto or converted to a fiat balance on deposit. That difference decides who carries the price risk.
- Local methods that actually matter — Interac for Canada is the obvious one. A casino with no Interac and no CAD is a poor fit for a Canadian however good the games are, and we rank accordingly.
- Minimum and maximum deposit, and fees on the way in.
5. Trust and licence
- Licence. Which body, what number, and whether the number checks out on the regulator’s own register. “Licensed and regulated” with no named body is not a licence.
- What that licence is worth. Curaçao, Anjouan and Costa Rica are not comparable to the UK, Malta or Ontario in what they will do for you if something goes wrong. We say so plainly rather than listing them all as “licensed”.
- Ownership — who operates it, and what else they operate.
- How long it has been live, and terms quality: whether the terms are readable, dated and versioned. Undated terms that can change silently are a red flag on their own.
- Complaint record in public sources, and how the operator responded.
What we do not score
We do not score how big the welcome bonus is. Bonus size is a marketing number and scoring it would reward whoever advertises hardest. We score how fair it is.
We do not score reputation as a feeling. If we cannot point at the evidence, it does not go in the score.
We do not adjust a score because of our commercial relationship. See the Affiliate Disclosure for how we are paid and what that does and does not change.
Where our facts come from
For anything a casino could dispute, we work from the operator’s own terms and conditions first, their help centre second, and reputable third-party registers third — and we label which. When we checked all sixteen casinos on this site for Canada and Ontario, roughly a third of the third-party lists we cross-checked were wrong, including one well-known one that lists a casino as blocking Canada when the clause it is reading is a game-supplier restriction, not a country block. That is why we go to the terms.
Where we cannot verify something, we leave it blank and say so. A blank is more useful to you than a guess.
When we get it wrong
We will. Operators change terms without notice, which is why our data carries a date. Every review shows when it was last checked.
If you find something wrong, tell us and we will fix it and say that we did. See the Editorial Policy for how corrections are handled.
