Know who you are playing with. Only licensed online casinos.
Independent online casino reviews, built from licence, payment and complaint records
We check who licensed a casino, what its bonus really costs and how long a withdrawal takes. Country editions carry the local regulator and the local rules; this page is the general one.
Gambling regulation worldwide
Gambling regulation is national, so what is legal depends on where you live. Each country edition sets out the local regulator, the licensed operators and the rules that apply there.
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Latest from our editorial team
What a licence actually forces a casino to do
A licence is where the checking starts, not where it ends. It names the regulator that can inspect the operator, the records the operator has to keep, and the route you take if a withdrawal is refused or a complaint goes nowhere.
National licences and offshore licences are not the same thing. This edition covers operators licensed offshore, mostly by the Malta Gaming Authority, and that is thinner protection than a licence from the regulator in your own country. Where your country runs its own register, its edition of this site is the one to read.
- Verify identity and age before a player gambles without limits or withdraws.
- Keep player balances separate from operating money, or publish how they are protected.
- Connect to the national self-exclusion register in countries that run one.
- Publish return to player figures and submit games to an approved testing laboratory.
- Offer deposit, loss and session limits a player can set before the damage is done.
- Name a complaints route that ends with the regulator or an approved dispute body.
How to check a casino before you deposit
The checks that matter are public, and most of them are dull. An operator that will not show its licence number, its company name and its withdrawal rules is asking you to trust its marketing instead of its paperwork.
|
Signal |
Licensed operator |
Unlicensed operator |
|---|---|---|
|
Licence number |
Number, company name and status all match an entry in the regulator's public register. |
A badge or a line of text you cannot match to any register. |
|
Age and identity |
Documents or database checks, under rules the operator names. |
The account opens in seconds, and verification only appears once you try to take money out. |
|
Player money |
The terms say where balances are held and how a withdrawal is reviewed. |
Processing rules are vague, or support changes them mid dispute. |
|
Self-exclusion |
A link to the national scheme wherever the regulator runs one. |
An email request that stops nothing anywhere else. |
|
Game testing |
Return to player figures in the help pages, and a named testing laboratory. |
Fairness promised in general terms, with no certificate and no game data. |
|
Complaints |
Internal stages first, then a named external body. |
Support is the last stop, and there is nobody above it. |
How we rank casinos
Every ranking on this site is built from fields that can be checked again tomorrow, and each list publishes the criteria and the weight behind the order. Regulation comes first, commerce never does.
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We look up the licence in the public register. On a country edition that means a licence from that country's own regulator. Missing, suspended or expired, and no outbound link is rendered at all.
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We read the payout and complaint record next: repeated slow payments, decisions the operator lost, and terms used to hold back an ordinary withdrawal.
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We work out what the bonus costs. Wagering, game weighting, maximum stake, expiry and the cap on what you can cash out are stored as data, each with its source and the date somebody last checked it.
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We compare payments and games once the risk questions are answered. A big games library does not make up for a licence nobody can find.
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The published weights produce the score. An operator we earn nothing from goes through the same calculation as one we do.
A commercial deal never moves a casino up, and having no deal never keeps one out. Where a paid link exists, it is marked as paid.
What you will find here
Casino reviews
Licence, owner, payment limits, withdrawal timing, complaint route and bonus terms, recorded as fields rather than adjectives. The prose is there for context and for warnings.
Bonuses
What an offer costs, not how big the headline number is. A smaller bonus with clean terms beats a large one you cannot clear.
Payment methods
Deposits, withdrawals, fees, verification and the pending period, method by method. Payout times are ranges taken from published rules, because that is what they are.
Games
Slots, live dealer tables and the rest, grouped by provider, with return to player figures where the provider discloses them. Nothing here suggests a game owes you a win.
Guides
Licences, self-exclusion, complaints and the settings worth turning on, explained in plain language. Country editions add the local regulator and the rules that stop at its border.
Responsible gambling
Gambling is for adults, and the legal age is not the same everywhere. Check your own country's edition before assuming an operator, a payment method or a product is allowed where you live.
The practical tools beat any slogan. Deposit limits, loss limits, time reminders, cool-off periods and self-exclusion all give you a way to slow down or stop, and they work best set on a quiet day rather than a bad one.
If your gambling worries you, or somebody else's does, help is available and it is free. Licensed operators have to point you to it, and most regulators publish advice on blocking access and on making a complaint.
Frequently asked questions
Is playing at an online casino legal where I live?
That depends on your country, and sometimes on the province or state inside it. The country editions cover the local regulator, the operators it has licensed and the rules that apply there.
What makes an online casino trustworthy?
A licence you can find in a public register, an owner who is named, testing you can verify and withdrawal rules written down before you deposit. Trust should come from evidence that sits outside the casino's own website.
How fast are withdrawals really?
Verification, payment method, local rules and the operator's own limits all decide it. An instant method still waits if your identity checks are unfinished, which is why payout times are published here as ranges.
What does a welcome bonus cost?
The cost sits in the conditions: wagering, which games count, the maximum stake allowed while it is live, the expiry date and how much of the winnings you are actually allowed to take out.
Is an offshore licence good enough?
It shows the operator answers to somebody, which is more than nothing. It is not the same as being licensed where you live, and the register, the rights and the complaint route are all weaker.
How does this site make money?
Some outbound links are paid, and every one of them is marked. Payment does not set the order of a list, and a casino we earn nothing from is reviewed and ranked like any other.