Our editorial policy

CasinoTrust exists to tell players what a platform is actually like: how fast it pays, whether its licence is real, and what its bonus terms cost. This policy explains how we protect that job from commercial pressure. It applies to every page on the site — from brand guides and comparison tables to the academy and the wiki.

Advertising and editorial are separate

CasinoTrust is funded by affiliate commissions and, in clearly labelled slots, by advertising. The two sides of the business are run by different people with different objectives, and they communicate about content in one direction only: editorial tells commercial what has been published, never the reverse.

Editorial independence

Editorial decisions — what we review, what we score, what we say and when we say it — are made by the editorial desks listed on our authors page. Nobody on the commercial side of the business can assign a review, approve a draft, change a score or delay publication. A platform that refuses to cooperate with testing is still reviewed; a platform that asks to be removed is not removed.

• Scores are produced only by applying the public Ranking Protocol. No other input is permitted.
• No platform sees a draft before publication. Operators may request a factual check after publication via the corrections route below.
• Editors do not hold accounts funded by operators, accept travel, gifts or hospitality, or own equity in any platform we cover.
• We do not write 'sponsored reviews'. Paid content, where it exists, is labelled as advertising and is never placed in the ranking list.

How affiliate commissions work — and why they don't move scores

When you click a link to a platform and open an account, that platform may pay CasinoTrust a commission. That is how most of the site is funded and how the academy and calculators stay free. Three rules keep commissions from leaking into the editorial product:

1. Every platform is scored the same way, whether or not it pays us. Several platforms in our rankings have no commercial relationship with CasinoTrust. Their scores are calculated with the same protocol, and they appear in the same position their score earns.
2. Commission rates are invisible to editors. Desks do not know which platform pays what. The commercial team cannot see scores before publication.
3. Ranking order never depends on revenue. Our lists are sorted by protocol score; ties are broken by the Trust & licensing sub-score, never by commercial value.

Corrections policy

We correct errors quickly and visibly. If you believe something on CasinoTrust is wrong — a licence detail, a payment method, a bonus term, a game rule, a translation — email contact@casinotrust.org with the page URL and the evidence. Operators, regulators and readers use the same address.

1. 1

   We acknowledge within 2 working days

   You will receive a reference number and the name of the desk handling the request.

2. 2

   We verify against primary sources

   Regulator registers, the platform's own terms, our test logs and screenshots. A claim without evidence is still checked, but only verified facts change the page.

3. 3

   We publish the correction

   Factual errors are fixed in place and the updated date changes. Material corrections — anything that changes a score, a verdict or a recommendation — carry a visible note at the foot of the page describing what changed and when.

4. 4

   We re-score if needed

   If the correction touches a scored dimension, the protocol is re-applied and the ranking updates automatically.

We do not remove pages because an operator finds them unflattering. We do remove or rewrite content that is factually wrong, and we say so.

Sourcing standards

Every factual claim on the site should be traceable to one of the following, in this order of preference:

• Our own tests — real deposits, withdrawals, support tickets and mobile sessions, recorded with timestamps and screenshots.
• Regulator registers and public notices — UKGC, MGA, Spelinspektionen, the Curaçao Gaming Control Board, iGaming Ontario and others. Licence status is always checked against the register, never taken from a footer badge.
• Operator terms and published rules — bonus conditions, payout limits, KYC thresholds, with the date we read them.
• Game-provider documentation — RTP and volatility figures as published by the studio; we never estimate RTP.
• Mathematical derivation — house edges, odds and strategy tables in the academy are calculated, not quoted, and can be reproduced with the calculators.

Where a figure cannot be verified we say so and tell you to check the current offer on the platform. We do not publish bonus amounts, traffic numbers or licence numbers we have not confirmed.

Use of AI in our editorial process

We use software — including AI language tools — to assist with research, translation drafts, transcription of test logs and consistency checks across our 11 language editions. We disclose how:

• AI tools may assist with drafting, summarising and translating. They do not test platforms, assign scores or decide what is published.
• Every page is reviewed, fact-checked and approved by a human editor on the responsible desk before it goes live. The human editor is accountable for the page.
• Translations are checked by a human reviewer for the target language; game maths and regulatory content are re-verified in each language, not just translated.
• We do not use AI to generate fake testimonials, reviews or images of people, or to simulate test results.

Review cadence

Every scored page shows a last-tested date. If that date is more than 120 days old, treat the score as provisional and check the platform's current terms yourself.

Conflicts of interest

Staff and regular contributors must declare any financial interest in a gambling operator, game studio, payment provider or affiliate network. Anyone with such an interest is excluded from covering that company. Editors may hold personal player accounts funded with their own money for testing; balances are declared and winnings from test play are not retained by the individual. We do not accept freelance work from operators we cover.

Complaints about our content

If you think we have breached this policy — not just made an error, but acted in a way that compromises independence — write to contact@casinotrust.org with 'Editorial complaint' in the subject line. Complaints are handled by the Compliance & Responsible Gambling Desk, which is independent of the desk that produced the content. You will receive a written response within 10 working days explaining what we found and what we changed. If we got it wrong, we publish that too.

For complaints about a gambling platform rather than about us, see how to report a platform and our responsible gambling resources.