How We Rate Casinos

The Score at a Glance

Every casino on our casino list carries a score out of 10. The score adds up four checks, and each check reads one figure the casino publishes itself: the wagering on its welcome offer, its stated payout time, its minimum deposit and the license it names in its footer.

We chose these four because a player can confirm every one of them on the casino's own site in a few minutes. If you disagree with a score, you can take the same four figures, use the tables below and get the same number we did.

Check 1: Wagering

Wagering is the number of times you have to bet a bonus before you can withdraw what you win with it. It is the single biggest difference between a welcome offer that looks generous and one that is. A £100 bonus at 30x means £3,000 of bets before a withdrawal; the same bonus at 45x means £4,500.

We score the multiplier the casino publishes for its welcome offer. A lower multiplier scores higher, and an offer with no wagering at all takes the top band.

The multiplier is all this check reads. Whether wagering applies to the bonus alone or to the deposit as well, and the other conditions attached to an offer, are part of the terms review behind each casino box, not part of the score.

Check 2: Payout Speed

Payout speed is how long the casino says it takes to process a withdrawal once you request it. We read the time the casino states in its terms or on its cashier page and score it by the upper end of the range. A casino that says "0–24h" is scored as 24 hours, and "0–3 days" as 72 hours.

A stated payout time is the casino's promise, not a result we have measured, and the card shows it as the casino's figure. The clock usually starts after your account is verified, so a first withdrawal can take longer than the time listed.

Check 3: Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit is the smallest amount the casino lets you pay in. A low minimum lets you try a casino without committing much money, which matters most at a site you haven't used before. We score the amount in pounds, as it appears on the card.

This check has a floor of 1.5, not 0.5. A high minimum deposit makes a casino less flexible, but it doesn't put your money at risk the way heavy wagering or slow payouts can, so it costs fewer points.

Check 4: Listed License

Every card shows a "Listed license" label. It is the license the casino names in its own footer, printed as the casino states it, including when that license isn't Anjouan and when the casino names none. The label records the claim; the register check behind it is part of the review described on our homepage.

Anjouan and Curaçao score the same here because both issue gaming licenses with published conditions. How they differ is set out in our Anjouan vs Curaçao comparison. Costa Rica scores lower because it has no gambling regulator: a Costa Rican registration is a business license, not a gaming license. A casino that names no license at all gives you nothing to check.

This check stops at 2 points, not 2.5. A license in a footer is a claim we can't turn into a guarantee, so no casino gets full marks for it. That held-back half point is why the highest score on our scale is 9.5.

From Points to Stars

The four checks are added together to give the score out of 10. The stars on each card show the same score on a five-star scale: we halve the score and round to the nearest whole star, with halves rounded up.

The lowest score the four checks can produce is 3.0, so no casino on the list shows fewer than two stars. A low star count means a casino scored poorly on its published terms; it doesn't mean it failed our review.

Three Scores Worked Through

Here are three casinos from our list, with each figure taken from the card and each point taken from the tables above.

What the Score Doesn't Measure

Four published figures can't describe everything that matters at a casino, and the score doesn't pretend to. It leaves out game fairness, who owns the casino, its complaint record, withdrawal limits and the finer bonus conditions such as maximum bets and expiry dates.

Those are covered by the review described in How We Checked These Casinos on our homepage. That review, not the score, decides whether a casino appears on the list and where it sits, which is why the list isn't sorted by score. Read the score as a quick summary of a casino's published terms, and the casino box and the review as the fuller picture.

When a Score Changes

Casinos change their offers and terms often. Every figure behind a score is read from the casino's own terms, bonus page or cashier, and the date we last read them is printed under the casino list. When one of those figures changes, we re-run the four checks, update the card and move the date.

Nothing else moves a score. We don't adjust points by hand, we don't borrow ratings from other sites, and a casino's commercial relationship with us isn't an input. How the site is paid for is explained on our About Us page.