How we calculate our casino rankings

Online casino reviews are one of the main sections of our website. We aim to provide online casino players with the most accurate information to help them make informed decisions, and one of the most important decisions is choosing a casino to play at.

Why our reviews are better

Our casino reviews are different from most reviews on the internet. We don't just take into account the usability of the sites, the variety of game choices and other factors. Our ratings are based on the most important criterion - casino trust. That is why our rating is more objective.

Our main ranking (trust) shows how easy it is for players to withdraw their winnings. In dishonest casinos this often becomes a problem, as they apply unfair rules and use various excuses to deny withdrawals. Casinos with a fair approach to gaming are usually awarded a high rating, while dishonest casinos are awarded a low rating.

Some players are unaware of this, but there are a huge number of casinos that do not make honesty a priority. This is one of the most common reasons we receive complaints from players.

What factors are taken into account when assessing casino trusts

When compiling our reviews, we take into account the wealth of information that our team members collect about each casino. This information can be divided into three main categories:

Casino turnover or gross margin (sometimes defined by indirect criteria such as traffic and its distribution by country).
Player complaints
Unfair casino behaviour and restrictions, for which points are taken away.

Casino turnover is an important factor for safe gaming, as large winnings can be a problem for casinos with small turnovers. Small casinos have small revenues, so large winnings can put their existence in jeopardy. If a player wins more than the casino can afford to pay out, the casino will simply go bankrupt, so it has no choice but to find an excuse to DISPAY the payout. And that's the problem.

On the other hand, large casinos with thousands of players can count on a statistical advantage and pay out big winnings to some players at the expense of others' losses. With all this in mind, casino turnover or profit is one of the two main factors in our trust ranking.

The trust ranking also takes into account player complaints. They help us understand the casino's attitude towards players. If we receive a lot of justified complaints about the casino's actions, this indicates clear problems that are causing player dissatisfaction.

The basis of our trust rating is based on factors such as casino turnover and player complaints (number, amount disputed and reasons). These factors are considered in relation to each other, as larger casinos by default have more complaints than smaller ones because of the higher number of players. Therefore, a large casino may - but will not necessarily - have a higher rating than a small casino, even with more complaints.

Detailed description of the review process

So, we have given a general description of our casino review and evaluation process. Next, we will go into more detail and explain it in great detail.

A detailed description of the evaluation criteria and how they affect our rating

Let's take a look at the main criteria used to rate casinos and how they affect our ratings:

Casino Trust

One of the main criteria for this ranking is the size of the casino, which is determined by its income level.

Where do we get the income information from the casinos? Some casinos post their income information to the public. However most refuse to do so. In these cases, we use our own sophisticated formula to estimate revenues based on the number of visitors (determined by analytical systems such as similarWeb, Ahrefs, etc.) and the country from which they visit the site (since deposits and bets differ from country to country). From this we can estimate approximate revenues and get an idea of the financial health of the casino.

We also strive to ensure that this ranking is an accurate reflection of the casino's attitude towards its players and their ability to withdraw money. Therefore, player complaints serve as another important criterion in its calculation.

Our team searches the internet for complaints about a particular casino, which gives us an idea of how this casino feels about its players. We add all the complaints to our database and categorize them according to our understanding of the problem (whether the casino was unfair) and other factors, such as whether the player used real money or played with bonus money. Given the disputed amounts of each complaint and their classification, we calculate the number of black points for each complaint. Subsequently, these points are taken into account when calculating the rating.

In addition to the above, this rating is affected by the following criteria:

Casino licence. Some complaints are assessed differently depending on the casino's license and regulatory body. A reliable supervisory authority increases the chances of successful dispute resolution if the casino does not respond directly to complaints or does not contact our portal representatives.
Complaint timing. Over time, the impact of a complaint on a casino's ranking decreases. We assume that casinos are constantly evolving and getting better, so we don't want to judge them harshly for old complaints. A new relevant and justified complaint clearly indicates a site's problems, whereas a complaint that is several years old may refer to a time when the casino had completely different management, for example.
Low withdrawal limits. Some casinos have very low withdrawal limits and it may take months or even years before your winnings are fully paid. We will decrease the rating if its withdrawal limits are lower than what we believe is fair.
Low winnings limits. Any winnings limits are unfair limits, but we allow them if they are high enough, do not inconvenience players, do not apply to progressive jackpot winnings or are set by the regulatory authority. If the limits are too low or not set by the regulatory authority, the casino trust is reduced.
Blacklists. Some sites publish blacklists. If a casino is blacklisted, we will study in detail the activities of this site and assess the relevance of the blacklist. The importance and relevance of each blacklist determines whether and how many points should be deducted from the ranking. The date the blacklist was published also affects the amount of points to be deducted. The older the blacklist is, the fewer points are deducted.
Unfair rules. Every clause in the casino's terms and conditions should be fair. If we find unfair rules, we will warn our visitors about them and lower the casino's rating.
Hidden rules. All rules should be specified in the general terms and conditions or in the bonus conditions. If the casino has rules that are not mentioned in the T&Cs, it is unfair to the players and we will give a rating for this as well. Our fair play code describes both unfair and hidden rules.
Fake games. Fair casinos use authentic games from game suppliers and developers. However, some casinos use copies of popular games that can be set up to pay out smaller amounts. This is a prime example of dishonest treatment of players, and we also downgrade for this.
Fake license or no license. Licenses are an important part of the online casino ecosystem. They show that the casino can be trusted and that it is monitored by regulatory authorities. If the casino doesn't have a license or the license is fake (which is even worse), we will lower the rating.
Feedback from players - this criterion is given low weight when it comes to evaluating trustworthiness, but it is still present. Each left feedback is evaluated by our moderator and it gets a certain weight. If we see that the review came from a newly registered user and has clear signs of venality he gets zero weight and has no effect on the rating of the casino.

We have listed the most important criteria, but they are not the only ones. In all, our model takes into account more than 150 different criteria in evaluating casinos. This list is updated regularly, because sometimes we are faced with unusual unfair treatment. Unscrupulous casinos are always inventing new ways to scam players, so we study each casino, its website and terms and conditions in details, not to miss anything that could harm the players and try to take them into account in our evaluation.

It's also important to note that each case is considered individually. Sometimes a casino may have a justifiable reason for doing something that in other circumstances we would consider unfair (e.g. having winnings restrictions due to specific legislation, operating without a license due to anonymity, etc.). In such cases, we contact the casino directly in order to be fair not only to the players but also to the casino.

Games and software

Accounts for the number of game providers and their qualitative and quantitative composition

Bonuses

Calculated based on our model for evaluating casino bonuses. And it shows how much the given casino promo is beneficial for the potential player.

Player support

Evaluates how well the casino's customer support department works. Customer support is an important factor influencing the positive player experience.

Rankings in different regions and countries

You might have already noticed that all the casinos in our presentation are sorted by default by this ranking. That's why we think this is the best way to give casinos the right ranking because it can both excite and frustrate players from other countries. That's why we have created a custom ranking for players from different countries, which includes our assessment of each casino on a global level, as well as custom factors that are important to players from a specific country.

In these rankings, we consider the following criteria:

Does the casino accept players from a specific country?
We suggest casinos which accept players from your country. This is the most important factor in the rating.
Can the players from a specific country make deposits and withdrawals?
Not all payment methods are available and popular in all countries. We know what methods are used by players in a particular country, so we suggest casinos that support them.
Does the casino support the local language?
It is not surprising that many players prefer to play at a casino that is translated into their native language. Therefore language support is an important criterion for ranking.
Is it enough for a player from his own country to start playing at this casino?
The registration and first deposit procedures in some casinos can be very tedious, especially for players from certain countries.
What do our local testers say?
We work with testers from different countries to make sure we can recommend the best online casinos to players from all countries, and their feedback is very important.

How data is collected and when reviews are updated

Our reviews are always based on data. Our reviewers collect information about casinos and enter it into a database, then a sophisticated algorithm calculates the ratings based on this data. This process keeps our reviews unbiased, but for the algorithm to work the reviewers have to collect large amounts of information.

Updating reviews periodically

When we collect information about casinos, we understand that it can lose relevance and credibility over time. Therefore, we periodically repeat the casino review process from scratch to make sure that the information provided is accurate. This is how our database stays up to date.

Keeping detailed information about thousands of online casinos up to date is not easy. We can't double-check every casino every day or even once a week. That's why we have developed a special section on our website where casinos can update information about their projects, add and edit bonuses and post up-to-date news on our portal.

Each change made by a casino representative is moderated before it will be published in our reviews.

Occasionally, we are informed by our visitors that a change needs to be made. This also helps us keep the information up-to-date. In other words, our visitors help make GamblingKing better.