In short
Every casino on this site carries a Health Score out of 100. It is the output of six measured inputs, each with a fixed weight, gathered by opening an account, depositing our own money and timing a withdrawal. No part of it can be bought.
This page sets out the scoring model, the rules that govern the reviews players post alongside ours, and the twenty-five steps each review goes through. The standards that sit above it are in our editorial guidelines; how we verify a fact is in our fact-checking policy; how we are paid is in our advertising and affiliate disclosure.
How the score works
The Health Score is a single number out of 100 that answers one question: on the evidence we have gathered, how likely is this casino to treat you fairly and pay you what you win? It is built from six inputs. Each input is scored out of 10 against written criteria, multiplied by a fixed weight, and added up. The weights do not change between casinos, markets or verticals, and they do not change because a casino advertises with us.
Two of the six inputs are measured rather than judged. Payout speed comes from withdrawals we requested ourselves, timed from the moment we hit the button to the moment the money arrived. Complaints are a count of the cases we have handled or verified ourselves. The other four involve judgment, so each one has a written rubric and a second editor signs the result off.
The six inputs and what each one carries
Payouts and withdrawals
30%
Measured
Median and 90th-percentile time from withdrawal request to money received, per method, from withdrawals we made ourselves. Also the stated processing time, any fee, the minimum and maximum, and whether the button ever went gray mid-session.
Terms and bonus fairness
20%
Judged against a rubric
Wagering multiple, the window, max cashout caps, max bet while a bonus is active, and dormant-account and confiscation clauses. Read from the live terms and compared with the copy we archived when testing began. A nightly check that dates every edit is being built.
Licensing and player protection
20%
Judged against a rubric
Which regulator, checked against its own register, and what recourse that gives you. Whether player funds are segregated, whether deposit limits and self-exclusion actually work when tested, and whether the casino is licensed for the market we are writing about.
Complaints and casework
15%
Measured
Cases we have handled or verified, their outcome, and how long the casino took to respond. Volume is read against the casino’s size, so a large casino is not punished for having more players.
Games and software
10%
Judged against a rubric
Library breadth, the studios behind it, published RTP per title, and whether any title runs a reduced-RTP build. For provably fair games, we replay rounds from the published seeds and check the results ourselves.
Support and usability
5%
Judged against a rubric
A real question asked through every channel offered, timed and graded on whether it was answered. Plus signup friction, mobile performance, and whether the cashier tells you the truth about timings.
Total
100%
Payouts carry the most weight because a casino that does not pay makes every other quality irrelevant. Terms and licensing sit next because they decide what happens when a payout is refused. Games and support matter to the experience but rarely cost a player money, so they carry the least. If an input cannot be tested, for example a payment method that is not available to us, the review says so and its weight is shared proportionally across the other five.
The 0-100 scale
Every casino is scored against the same fixed standard, whatever other casinos in its market score, so a market can have no casino above 70. In practice most licensed casinos land between 45 and 75. A score above 85 is rare, and it takes payout times we have measured ourselves as well as a clean license and fair terms.
85-100
Exceptional
Fast payouts proven over a large sample, terms with nothing buried in them, a license with real recourse, and no unresolved casework. Rare, and only awarded where we have timed the payouts ourselves.
70-84
Strong
Pays reliably and behaves well, with one or two things worth knowing before you deposit. Most of our recommendations sit here.
55-69
Mixed
Works, but something material counts against it: a slow tail on withdrawals, steep wagering, a weak license, or a complaints record that needs watching. The review says which.
40-54
Weak
We would not put our own money in without reading the terms twice. Listed for completeness, and kept out of best-of shortlists.
0-39
Avoid
A refused payout, a license problem, or conduct we can evidence. Removed from every ranking and named on our casinos to avoid page.
Three findings override the arithmetic. A casino that refuses a verified withdrawal without a term to stand on, one that accepts players who have self-excluded, or one operating without a valid license for the market we are writing about, is capped at 39 and removed from every ranking and shortlist, whatever the other five inputs say. Those cases are published on our casinos to avoid page with the evidence attached.
The confidence band
ComingA score built on four withdrawals is not as trustworthy as one built on thirty, so we are going to publish how much evidence sits behind each one. The confidence band is not live yet. When it launches it will appear next to the score on every review and in the sort controls of every table, set by the number of completed tests and how recent they are, so you can see when a score rests on only a few tests. The bands and their rules are below.
High
15+ withdrawals, tested in the last 6 months
Enough data for the 90th percentile to mean something. The score moves slowly and only on new evidence.
Medium
6 to 14 withdrawals, tested in the last 12 months
The typical payout time is reliable, but we need more tests before the slowest ones are. Expect the score to move as the sample fills out.
Loew
Fewer than 6 withdrawals, or data over 12 months old
Will carry a visible flag and be excluded from payout-speed rankings. Already queued for the next test batch.
Bands are not shown on review pages yet
We record the test count and date behind every score today, and the reviews say in words how many withdrawals a figure is based on. The band itself, and the sort and filter controls that use it, are being built. The date it goes live will be recorded on the roadmap on our About page.
A casino with a low band can still rank, and the band will be shown next to its score wherever that score appears. Tests older than twelve months are already excluded from the payout figures, so a casino we have not revisited within a year drops to low confidence automatically.
Who scores, and how often we re-test
A named reviewer runs the tests and proposes the score. A second editor checks the evidence against the rubric and signs it off; for anything scoring above 80 or below 40 that second editor is the Senior Editor. Both names and the date appear on the review. Only editorial staff can change a score, and every change is logged with the reason, the evidence and the person who made it. The people who do this work are listed on our team page.
First review
All 25 steps, minimum six timed withdrawals across two methods, license verified against the regulator’s register.
Top 50 by traffic
Re-tested every month: two fresh withdrawals, a terms check against our saved copy and a complaints sweep.
Everything else we list
Re-tested quarterly, with the whole 25 steps re-run once a year.
Event-driven
Immediately, whatever the schedule says, when one of the four triggers below fires.
Alongside the calendar, four events trigger an immediate re-test whatever the schedule says: a license change or regulator sanction, a terms edit that affects withdrawals or bonus value (caught on re-tests until our nightly terms check is built), three or more verified complaints inside thirty days, or a payout in our own testing that exceeds the casino’s stated processing time by more than double.
How we moderate the reviews players post
Player reviews sit alongside our own on every casino page, and they are the only part of the site we do not write. They do not feed the Health Score, because we cannot verify a stranger’s session the way we verify our own, but they are the earliest signal we get that something has changed at a casino, so we take their integrity seriously. This section is the moderation policy in full.
Who may post, and how often
- Anyone of legal gambling age in their own country who has held an account at the casino they are writing about. We ask, and we do not police age beyond that, but we remove anything that suggests the writer is under age.
- One review per person per casino. A later experience can replace an earlier one, and the page shows the date it was edited.
- Nobody who works for casinos.org, PerformixMedia or a casino we cover may post a review, under their own name or any other. Staff accounts are flagged in our system and blocked from submitting.
- We never pay for a review, never offer an incentive for one, and never accept a batch of reviews from a casino, an agency or a reputation-management service.
What verification means, and what it does not
Every review is published with a label that says exactly what we checked, and we never imply more certainty than we have. Account verification is being built and is not live yet, so every player review on the site today is labeled unverified.
Verified player
ComingNot live yet. When it launches, a writer will be able to send evidence that they held an account at that casino: a redacted account statement, a deposit or withdrawal confirmation, or a support ticket reference. We will check the casino and the date, then delete the document within thirty days. The label will confirm that the writer held an account at that casino. It says nothing about whether their account of events is accurate.
Unverified
Live todayEvery player review on the site today. No account evidence has been supplied or matched. The review appears if it passes moderation and carries this label everywhere. Once verification launches, unverified reviews will be excluded from the aggregate star rating on the casino page.
Verification is not live yet
The evidence route, the thirty-day deletion rule and the verified label are all built but not switched on. Until they are, no review on the site carries a verified label and the moderation rules below are the only filter. The date it goes live will be recorded on the roadmap on our About page.
Where a player’s claim contradicts something we have measured ourselves, the casino page shows both and says which is which. Where a claim is serious and specific enough to test, we test it, and if it holds up, the score changes through our normal scoring process.
What gets removed, and why
Every submission is read by a moderator before it appears, usually within two working days. We edit nothing: a review is published as written or rejected with a reason sent to the address that submitted it. Negative reviews are published like any other, and a complaint about a payout is the single most useful thing a player can tell us.
No account, or the wrong casino
The review describes a casino the writer never played at, or names a site we do not cover. We ask the writer which casino they mean.
Coordinated posting
Several reviews from one device, address range or writing pattern, positive or negative. We remove the cluster and say on the page that we did.
Paid or incentivized
The writer was offered money, credit or a bonus for posting. This applies equally to reviews a casino organized and to attacks organized by a rival.
Personal data
Account numbers, full names of support staff, screenshots containing another player’s details, or anything that would identify someone.
Abuse and hate
Threats, slurs, or abuse aimed at a person. Criticism of a casino, however angry, is published.
Off-topic or promotional
Affiliate links, referral codes, recovery-service pitches, or content about something other than playing at that casino.
Legal and age problems
Anything defamatory as a statement of fact rather than opinion, anything that breaks the law where we publish, or anything indicating the writer is under age.
When we remove a cluster of reviews as coordinated, we say so on the casino page: how many were removed and on what date. When a casino, or an agency working for one, is behind the cluster, that is a finding about the casino, and it is recorded against its complaints input in the score.
Right of reply, and appeals
A casino may reply to any player review about it, once, through our contact page. The reply is published underneath the review, labeled as coming from the casino, and it is not edited beyond removing personal data. Replies that identify a player, attack casinos.org without answering the review, or read as marketing are not published.
A player whose review is rejected, and a casino that believes a published review breaks the rules above, can appeal to the Senior Editor. Appeals are answered within five working days by someone who was not the original moderator. The outcome is one of three: the review stands, the review is removed, or the review stands with a note attached recording what is disputed. We keep a record of every appeal and its outcome, and we report the totals in the trust section of our About page each quarter.
If money is being withheld, do not stop at a review
A review tells other players what happened. To try to get your money back, send us the details through our complaints and disputes route and we will take the case to the casino with the evidence attached, then publish the outcome either way.
The 25 steps behind every review
Every casino goes through the same twenty-five steps, in the same order, run as an ordinary player would experience them and recorded as we go. The review is written from those notes. Where a step cannot be completed, the review names it and says why. The five stages below take three to six weeks for a first review, longer where a withdrawal stalls.
Before we sign up
Steps 1-5-
Confirm the license. Find the casino on the regulator’s own register, and record the license number, the licensee name and the permitted products for the market we are writing about.
-
Identify the owner and platform. Establish who actually runs the site, which group it belongs to, and whether sister brands have a history we already hold.
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Capture the terms. Archive the full terms, bonus terms and payments page as they stand on day one, so later edits can be compared with a fixed starting point.
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Read the payments promises. Record every stated processing time, fee, minimum and maximum, per method, exactly as the cashier page words it.
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Check the complaints record. Pull our own casework, regulator notices and published sanctions, and note anything unresolved before we open an account.
Account and deposit
Steps 6-10-
Sign up as a player would. Use an ordinary player account and do not contact the casino. Time the signup, note every field, and record any location or identity check at the door.
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Test the protection tools. Set a deposit limit and a session reminder, and confirm they hold. Where a cooling-off or self-exclusion route exists, we check it functions before we deposit.
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Deposit our own money. A real deposit from a real account, in the currency a local player would use, with the time to credit recorded.
-
Claim the welcome offer. Opt in as presented, then work out the wagering math against the terms to establish what the offer is actually worth per 1,000 wagered.
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Record the account state. Screenshot balances, bonus balances and any restriction applied, so nothing is disputed later.
Playing and support
Steps 11-15-
Play the library. Slots, tables and live where offered, checking published RTP per title against the studio’s own figure and flagging reduced-RTP builds.
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Verify fairness claims. Where a game is advertised as provably fair, replay rounds from the published seeds and confirm the results reconcile.
-
Ask support a real question. One specific, answerable question about withdrawals, asked through every channel offered, timed to first human reply and graded on whether it was answered.
-
Test the mobile experience. The same session on a phone, including the cashier and the withdrawal flow, because that is where most players actually play.
-
Watch for terms edits. Re-read the terms before the test closes and record the date of any change to withdrawal or bonus terms. An automatic nightly check is being built.
Cashing out
Steps 16-20-
Request the first withdrawal. Timed from the moment the request is submitted, with the cashier’s stated estimate captured alongside it.
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Log every KYC request. What was asked for, at what balance, how it was submitted and how long approval took. This sets the KYC threshold we publish.
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Repeat across methods. At least six withdrawals across two methods, including the slowest method offered, so the typical and slowest payout times each rest on several withdrawals.
-
Test a bonus-win cashout. A withdrawal from bonus winnings, to find out whether the max cashout cap and the wagering are applied as written.
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Record the money landing. Timed until the money arrives in our account, with the reference or transaction hash kept on file as evidence.
Scoring and sign-off
Steps 21-25-
Score each input. The reviewer scores all six inputs out of 10 against the written rubric, citing the note or artifact behind each one.
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Set the confidence band. Set by how many tests we have run and how recent they are. Recorded now, shown on the page once the band launches.
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Second-editor check. An editor who did not run the tests re-reads the evidence and either signs the score off or sends it back. Above 80 or below 40, that editor is the Senior Editor.
-
Publish with names and dates. Reviewer, checker, date of last test and the confidence band all appear on the page, along with what we could not test.
-
Queue the re-test. The casino enters the cadence above, and the four event triggers are armed against it.
We repeat steps 11 to 20 on every re-test, because that is where a casino’s behavior changes fastest. Steps 1 to 10 are re-run when a license, owner or platform changes, and steps 21 to 25 are run every time a score moves at all.
04 · Version history
Change history
- Version 1.2 September 11, 2026 Updated design & layout. Signed off by Nick Hall
About this policy
This is a company policy maintained by casinos.org, covering both the scoring model and the moderation of player reviews. It was last reviewed on . If you think a score is wrong or a review should not have been published, tell us through our contact page and an editor who was not involved will answer within 5 working days.