Our rating method for online casinos in Canada
What goes into each score, what stays out, and where a comparison site has to admit it cannot be sure.
Scores rest on seven areas: licence transparency, bonus clarity, payments, withdrawals, games, support and safer play tools. They are editorial opinions built from public information, not guarantees. We do not say an operator accepts players from a province or holds a particular licence unless we have confirmed it from an official source.
A ranking is only as useful as your understanding of how it was built. This page lists the yardsticks, the things we do not claim and the wall between money and scoring.
When rules or good practice change, we update the method and date the page.
What are the seven yardsticks?
| Area | What we look at |
|---|---|
| Licence transparency | Company, licence number and regulator are shown and can be traced. |
| Bonus clarity | Playthrough, caps, deadlines and game weighting are easy to find. |
| Payments | CAD, Interac e-Transfer and other methods, fees and limits. |
| Withdrawals | Stated conditions, ID policy and waiting periods. |
| Games | Range of providers and how clearly game details are given. |
| Support | Channels, languages and how precise the answers are. |
| Safer play | Limits, time-outs, self-exclusion and links to help. |
What do we leave unsaid on purpose?
We read public pages, terms and registers. We do not claim that an operator takes players from a given province, holds a certain licence or pays within a set time, unless an official source confirms it. When we cannot confirm, we say so and show you the steps, as in /en-ca/playbooks/confirm-casino-licence-canada/.
How does Canada's patchwork affect a score?
The market is provincial. Ontario registers private operators through the AGCO, Alberta has been moving toward a similar model, and other provinces lean on their own platforms. Sites licensed in places like Kahnawake or Malta are scored on openness, but their licence is not your province's approval. Context is in /en-ca/playbooks/who-regulates-online-casinos-canada/.
How is the money kept away from the scores?
Some operators have commercial agreements with us. They cannot pay for a score or a position, and we do not edit reviews on request. The rules are in /en-ca/affiliate-notice/ and the /en-ca/editorial-standards/.
What can a score not do?
It is a snapshot. Terms, licences and payment lists change. Treat a score as a starting point, then confirm the details on the operator's site and in the regulator's register.
How can you check our work?
Every claim of fact on a review can be traced to the operator's pages, a regulator's register or an official reference, and those links sit at the foot of the page. If you find a mismatch, email us and we will look at it.
Common questions
Can a casino buy a higher position?
No. Agreements with operators do not influence rank or score. We may earn a commission when you register through our links, and we say so plainly. The order is an editorial judgment that we revise whenever new information appears or terms change.
Do you play with real money for reviews?
We do not claim tests we did not perform. Reviews draw on public information, terms and registers, and we say that openly. Where a detail such as payout speed cannot be confirmed, we publish no figure at all and explain how you can check it yourself.
How current is the ranking?
Pages are reviewed from time to time, and each shows its update date. Offers and terms change often, so check current details with the operator before registering. When we learn that something changed, we revise the page and its score.
Official sources
- Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO): Ontario's regulator for licensed online gambling and the body that registers operators.
- iGaming Ontario: Ontario agency that lists the registered and approved online operators.
- Kahnawake Gaming Commission: licensing body for interactive gaming permit holders based in Kahnawake.
- Malta Gaming Authority (MGA): Malta's gambling regulator, whose licences appear in many casino footers.
These are outside websites. None of them has a commercial tie to us.