Our editorial policy

A Nigerian player wants to know three things before funding an account: will the withdrawal actually land in my bank account, is the licence real, and what will this bonus cost me in the end. CasinoTrust exists to answer those questions plainly. This policy sets out how we keep that work free from commercial pressure, and it covers every page we publish — from brand guides and comparison tables to the academy and the wiki.

The wall between adverts and editorial

CasinoTrust is paid for by affiliate commissions and, in clearly marked slots, by advertising. Different people run the two sides of the business with different targets, and information travels one way only: editorial tells commercial what has gone live, never the other way round.

We stay independent

What we review, what we score, what we write and when it goes live is decided by the editorial desks listed on our authors page. Nobody on the commercial side can commission a review, sign off a draft, move a score or hold back publication. A platform that refuses to cooperate with our testing still gets reviewed. A platform that asks us to take its page down does not get it taken down.

• Scores come from applying the public Ranking Protocol and nothing else. No other input is allowed in.
• No operator sees a draft before it publishes. If an operator disputes a fact, it uses the corrections route below, after publication like everyone else.
• Our editors do not run accounts funded by operators, do not accept flights, gifts or hospitality, and hold no shares in any platform we cover.
• We do not sell 'sponsored reviews'. Where paid content exists it carries an advertising label and never enters a ranking list.

How affiliate money works — and why it never moves a score

If you click through to a platform from here and open an account, that platform may pay CasinoTrust a commission. That is what funds the site and keeps the academy and the calculators free to use, whether you are reading on fibre in Lekki or on a metered data bundle in Kano. Three rules stop that money from reaching 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 at all. They are scored with the same protocol and they sit exactly where that score puts them.
2. Editors cannot see commission rates. The desks have no idea which platform pays what, and the commercial team cannot see a score before it publishes.
3. Ranking order never follows revenue. Lists are sorted by protocol score, and ties are broken on the Trust & licensing sub-score — never on what a partner is worth to us.

Getting something corrected

We fix mistakes quickly and in the open. If something here looks wrong — a licence detail, a payment rail such as bank transfer or USSD, a bonus term, a game rule, a figure in Naira — email contact@casinotrust.org with the page URL and your evidence. Readers, operators and regulators all use the same address.

1. 1

   We reply within 2 working days

   You get a reference number and the name of the desk handling it.

2. 2

   We check it against primary sources

   Regulator registers, the platform's own terms, our test logs and screenshots. A claim with no evidence is still looked at, but only verified facts change a page.

3. 3

   We publish the correction

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

4. 4

   We re-score where needed

   If the correction touches a scored dimension, we re-apply the protocol and the ranking updates on its own.

We do not pull a page down because an operator dislikes how it reads. We do rewrite or remove anything that is factually wrong, and we say plainly that we did.

Where our facts come from

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

• Our own testing — real deposits and withdrawals, support tickets and mobile sessions on Nigerian networks, all logged with timestamps and screenshots.
• Regulator registers and public notices — the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), Spelinspektionen, the Curaçao Gaming Control Board, iGaming Ontario and others, alongside Nigerian bodies such as the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) and the state lotteries boards. Licence status is always checked on the register, never taken from a badge in a footer.
• Operator terms and published rules — bonus conditions, payout ceilings, KYC thresholds, noted with the date we read them.
• Game-provider documentation — RTP and volatility as published by the studio. We never estimate an RTP.
• Mathematical derivation — house edges, odds and strategy tables in the academy are worked out rather than quoted, and you can reproduce them with our calculators.

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

How we use AI in the newsroom

We use software — AI language tools included — to help with research, translation drafts, transcribing test logs and keeping our 11 language editions consistent. Here is exactly where the line sits:

• AI tools may help with drafting, summarising and translating. They do not test platforms, set scores or decide what goes live.
• A human editor on the responsible desk reviews, fact-checks and signs off every page before publication, and remains accountable for it.
• Translations are checked by a human reviewer in the target language; game maths and regulatory detail are re-verified in each edition rather than simply translated.
• We never use AI to invent testimonials, reviews or pictures of people, or to fake test results.

How often we go back and re-check

Every scored page carries a last-tested date. Once that date is more than 120 days old, treat the score as provisional and go and read 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 holding such an interest is kept off coverage of that company. Editors may run personal player accounts funded with their own money for testing; balances are declared, and nobody keeps winnings from test play. We do not take freelance work from operators we cover.

Complaining about our journalism

If you believe we have broken this policy — not simply got a detail wrong, but acted in a way that compromises our independence — write to contact@casinotrust.org with 'Editorial complaint' in the subject line. Complaints go to the Compliance & Responsible Gambling Desk, which sits apart from the desk that produced the content. You will get a written response within 10 working days setting out what we found and what we changed. When we are the ones at fault, we publish that too.

If your complaint is about a gambling platform rather than about us, read how to report a platform and our responsible gambling resources.