How We Rate Casinos
Every casino here carries a score out of 5, set by hand against the same checklist every time — weighted towards the things that actually cost players money. Most sites ask you to trust the number. This page shows you how it is built.
The scale
A score is only useful if you know what it is measuring against. Ours is not a mark out of five for how nice a casino looks — it is a judgement on whether it will treat you fairly and pay you when you win.
| Score | Band | What it means |
| 4.0 – 5.0 | Excellent | A trusted, well-run casino. Strong on safety, payouts and fair terms. |
| 3.25 – 3.95 | Good | A sound choice with minor drawbacks worth knowing about. |
| 2.5 – 3.2 | Average | Playable, with real compromises. Read the review before depositing. |
| 1.75 – 2.45 | Poor | Significant problems. There are better places to play. |
| Below 1.75 | Avoid | Serious red flags. Steer clear. |
What we assess, and how much it counts
Not every factor matters equally. A generous bonus means nothing if you cannot withdraw your winnings, so a trustworthy operator and reliable payouts carry the most weight. Roughly in order of importance:
1. Safety, trust and fairness — highest weight
More than the badge in the footer. Who runs the casino and what their record is, whether the licence is valid, whether games run on tested and audited random number generators, how player funds are held. A casino operating with no valid licence cannot score well. Beyond that baseline, the operator's reputation and conduct count for as much as the licence tier itself. Independently audited games — eCOGRA, iTech Labs — count in its favour.
2. Payouts and withdrawals — high weight
Getting paid is the whole point. Withdrawal speed, daily and monthly limits, caps on winnings, the verification process, and the record of paying without excuses. Size and stability feed in here too: a small brand with tight limits is a riskier place to win big than an established operator with the funds to settle it.
3. Bonuses and fair terms — high weight
A bonus is judged on its real value, not the headline percentage. Wagering requirements, maximum bet while wagering, game weighting, time limits, maximum cash-out. A "200% bonus" with impossible terms scores worse than a modest, honest one. We read the full terms for clauses stacked against players — vague "bonus abuse" wording, restrictive win limits, rules the casino can change at will — and what matters most is whether a casino actually uses them. A predatory term that gets enforced hurts far more than one that sits unused.
4. Payment methods and fees
The range of deposit and withdrawal methods, cards through crypto, plus fees, minimums and supported currencies. More genuine choice and fewer hidden costs score higher.
5. Games and software providers
The size and quality of the library, and the studios behind it. Established, audited providers are a quiet mark of legitimacy.
6. Customer support
Channels, hours and languages — and whether support is genuinely reachable in the languages the casino advertises. The day you need it is the day it matters.
7. Mobile and usability
Most players are on a phone. How well the casino works there, how fast it loads, how easy it is to find games, claim a bonus and cash out.
8. Responsible-gambling tools — can cap the score
Deposit limits, time-outs, reality checks and self-exclusion should be easy to find and use. This is not a box to tick: a casino that makes it hard to play safely has its score capped, however good it is elsewhere.
9. Reputation and the company behind it
Running through all of it is the record. A long history of paying players and resolving disputes lifts a score; unresolved complaints, confiscated winnings or a pattern of moving the goalposts pull it down, however good the offer looks today.
And a casino rarely stands alone. This is where the operator pages come in: a brand launched last month has no track record of its own, but its owner usually does. A clean, well-run group raises our confidence in a new brand under it. A group with unresolved complaints or blacklisted brands drags its siblings down with it. Every operator page here lists the brands underneath it with their scores side by side, so you can see the same thing we do.
Licensing: important, but not the whole story
A licence is one signal among several, not a verdict on its own. But it decides one thing outright: what happens when a casino refuses to pay you and stops answering. We always state which authority licenses a casino, and the difference between them is not a matter of degree.
- Malta (MGA) — the strongest of the licences you will find here. Player funds must be held separately from the operator's own money, and the regulator runs a complaints process that can rule against a casino and be enforced.
- Estonia — EU-regulated, with real consumer protection behind it and an authority that answers complaints.
- Kahnawake — a long-established jurisdiction with a functioning dispute process, though a narrower one than the EU regulators.
- Curaçao — historically the weakest of the established licences, and the reason "licensed in Curaçao" carries the reputation it does. A reform is under way under a new gaming authority, and it is a genuine improvement, but it is recent enough that the record is still being written.
- Anjouan and Tobique — weak. These are newer licences with minimal supervision, and in practice your recourse rests on the operator choosing to do the right thing rather than on anyone making them. That is not a reason to avoid every casino holding one, but it is a reason to care a great deal more about who runs it.
What lifts a score is the operator behind the licence. A Curaçao- or Kahnawake-licensed casino run by an experienced, well-regarded operator — fast withdrawals, fair terms, strong responsible-gambling tools — can absolutely outscore a poorly run casino on a "better" licence. The reverse holds too: a top-tier licence will not rescue a casino that pays slowly or buries unfair terms in the small print.
When we tell you to avoid a casino
Some problems are bad enough that no other strength makes up for them. A casino lands in the Avoid band — or is left off entirely — if it operates without a valid licence, refuses or "voids" legitimate withdrawals, uses bonus terms designed so you can never cash out, or confiscates winnings on flimsy grounds.
When we get it wrong
Casinos change their terms without telling anyone, and a score that was right in March can be wrong by August. If a rating here no longer matches what you find at the casino, write to privacy@mrwager.com and we will check it.