How We Rate Casinos
Six things we measure, all from real testing. What a casino pays us plays no part in any of it.
The score a casino gets on this site comes from six things we measure during real testing. Not from what they pay us. Not from how nicely their rep talks to us. This page explains what those six things are and how much each one counts.
Full testing methodology is documented in our Editorial Guidelines. This page covers the scoring specifically.
Casino ratings directly influence real financial decisions — which qualifies this as YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) content under Google’s quality standards. Publishing our full methodology openly is part of how we demonstrate that ratings come from verified testing, not commercial arrangements.
The six categories and their weightings
| Category | Weight | What we’re actually measuring |
|---|---|---|
| Licensing & Security | 25% | Verified licence status, SSL, responsible gambling tools, any regulatory history |
| Bonuses & Promotions | 20% | Wagering requirements, win caps, contribution rates, how clearly the terms are written |
| Game Selection | 20% | Software provider quality, actual game count (verified, not just stated), mobile testing, RTP disclosure |
| Payment Methods | 15% | Real processing times, actual fees including buried ones, which methods genuinely work, currency support |
| User Experience | 10% | Navigation on real devices, account management, load times, how long basic tasks actually take |
| Customer Support | 10% | Real response times, accuracy of answers, whether they actually solve problems or just redirect to FAQ pages |
Licensing — 25%
Biggest weighting for an obvious reason. An unlicensed casino doesn’t get reviewed at all, but even among licensed operators, the quality of the licence matters. A UKGC licence comes with player fund segregation, mandatory GAMSTOP integration, and regular compliance audits. A post-2023 Curaçao GCB licence is a step up from the old sub-licensing free-for-all. We check each licence directly with the issuing regulator — the casino’s own website is not a reliable source for this.
Bonuses — 20%
The headline figure is almost always misleading. A £500 bonus sounds great until you see 60x wagering, a £5 maximum win, and a seven-day clock. We claim the welcome bonus as a normal player and track the actual wagering progress. A smaller bonus with fair terms frequently beats a large one with predatory conditions.
Games — 20%
We check the actual game count — manually, or by confirming with the operator directly. If a casino claims 3,000 games but we can only find 1,800, we publish 1,800. Provider quality matters too: a library full of games from unknown studios with uncertified RNGs is different from one featuring NetEnt, Pragmatic Play, or Evolution’s live tables. We also check whether the casino publishes RTP figures — not all do, and hiding that information is a negative.
Payments — 15%
Ryan tests every withdrawal. He requests real money and times how long it actually takes to arrive. Advertised processing times are routinely optimistic. We’ve seen casinos that claim 24 hours take four or five days. We publish the real number. We also catch fees that only appear in fine print, and verify which payment methods listed on the site actually work right now — some operators haven’t removed discontinued options from their pages.
User experience — 10%
We test on actual phones and actual browsers. If the mobile site is clunky, we say so. If finding a specific game takes three menus and a search that doesn’t work properly, that’s a real problem for players and it shows in the score.
Support — 10%
We ask real questions. Things like “what documents do I need before I can withdraw?” or “what’s the maximum I can win on this bonus?” — not softballs. We contact them outside business hours if they claim 24/7 availability. A chat that takes 45 minutes to connect and then pastes a link to the FAQ scores badly. A live agent who gives a clear, accurate answer in five minutes scores well.
The star scale
What has no effect on the score
Whether a casino pays us 15% or 45% revenue share, the rating is the same — it comes from what we found during testing. The editorial team doesn’t see commission data when they’re reviewing anyone. That’s not a policy we state and ignore. It’s how the operation actually works.
Keeping reviews current
Every review gets revisited every 90 days. Casinos change bonus terms, withdraw payment methods, slow down their processing times — sometimes all without telling anyone. We check. If something material changes between cycles — a licence problem, withdrawal delays, a regulatory sanction — we update the review immediately rather than waiting.