Casino Ratings: How We Test and Rate Online Casinos

Updated 23 September 2026. Every casino rating on RoyalCasinoAdvisor is a number between 1 and 10 with one decimal place. This page explains where that number comes from: what we do with a real account before we score anything, how six categories are weighted, how the arithmetic works on an example, and what makes a rating go down after it has been published.

What a casino rating here is, and what it is not

A casino rating on this site is the judgement of one reviewer who opened an account, deposited, played and withdrew, checked afterwards by a second editor against the reviewer's notes. It is not an average of player votes, it is not supplied by the operator, and it is not a ranking of which casino pays us most. It is also dated. A casino rated in March describes the casino in March, which is why each review shows its test date and why a rating can move in either direction later in the year.

That makes our ratings narrower than a crowd score and easier to check. If you disagree with one, the review behind it tells you exactly which category cost the points, and you can decide whether that category matters to you.

Account Registration

We register with real personal details, not press accounts. We complete KYC identity verification before making any deposit — this is the single most important step for testing withdrawal speed accurately. If KYC is required before a withdrawal (it always is at licensed casinos), we want that process completed before our withdrawal clock starts.

During registration, we note how long the process takes, whether KYC is prompted clearly, and whether responsible gambling tools (deposit limits, self-exclusion) are accessible before the first deposit. These observations go into the review.

Withdrawal Testing — Our Core Data

Payout speed is the most underreported metric in casino reviews. Most sites publish estimates supplied by operators, or quote terms and conditions. We measure it directly.

We make a withdrawal request via e-wallet (Skrill or Neteller) and note the exact time. We note when funds appear in the e-wallet account. We run three separate measurements per casino per testing cycle and report the average. Bank transfer times are not used as our primary metric — they vary by the player's bank, not only the casino's processing time.

If a casino advertises "instant withdrawals" and we wait 52 hours, that goes in the review. If they're faster than advertised, that goes in too.

Bonus Testing

We claim the advertised welcome bonus at each casino. We verify the wagering requirement against the stated terms and conditions — not what the landing page headline says. We track playthrough progress with real money bets and note whether the process is transparent.

Where a casino advertises zero wagering, we verify this across multiple test accounts before stating it in a review. Marketing language and actual terms differ frequently enough that we don't take "zero wagering" at face value.

Live Casino Testing

We attend live sessions of at least 30 minutes on four table types at each casino: roulette (standard), blackjack, a game show title, and baccarat. We test on both desktop broadband and 4G mobile. We log buffering events, resolution drops and interface failures. The streaming data in our reviews is from these sessions — not from a promotional demo.

Mobile Testing

We test on iPhone 15 Pro (iOS) and Samsung Galaxy S24 (Android) using standard consumer connections. We measure slot loading times, live casino availability and whether account management — deposits, withdrawals, limit-setting — is accessible from mobile without redirecting to a desktop experience.

Customer Support

We test live chat with a specific question about the casino's withdrawal limits or wagering requirements. Response time and answer accuracy are both recorded. "Our support team will help you" without an actual answer counts as a poor result. The scores reflect this.

Our casino rating system: six categories, published weights

The rating is a weighted average of six category scores, each marked out of 10. The weights are the same for every casino and they are published so that you can re-weight them in your head.

• Payments and withdrawals, 25%. The heaviest weight, because it is the one thing you cannot see before you sign up. We record the time from request to approval and from approval to arrival, whether the withdrawal method matched the deposit method, and whether any document was asked for only after the payout request.
• Licensing and safety, 15%. The licence reference in the footer is looked up on the regulator's public register, and the company named there has to match the company in the terms. We also note whether a complaints route is stated.
• Bonus terms, 15%. Scored on the conditions, not the percentage: the playthrough multiple, the maximum bet while it runs, which games count and whether anything changed after we opted in.
• Games and live casino, 15%. Breadth across game types, whether search and filters work, whether the live tables are open when we log in at odd hours, and how often a title fails to load.
• Account, verification and support, 15%. How predictable the identity check was, how many times a document had to be sent, and whether support answered the question we asked rather than a question it preferred.
• Mobile, 15%. Registration, cashier, verification upload and limit settings, all attempted on a phone. A feature that quietly requires a desktop costs points here.

A score of 9.4 means 9.4 across those criteria. We don't round scores up because a casino pays a higher commission rate. A casino ranked fifth earns us the same per referral as one ranked first.

From notes to a number: a worked example

Here is how the arithmetic runs, using an illustrative casino rather than one of the five we rate, so the example does not get confused with a real review.

The total is rounded to the nearest tenth. Notice what the weights do. The weak bonus score of 7 costs this casino 0.45 of a point compared with a perfect bonus, while a withdrawal that scored 7 instead of 9 would cost it 0.5 on its own. Payment behaviour moves a rating further than anything else, and that is deliberate.

What a high casino rating needs

Because payments carry a quarter of the total, a casino cannot buy its way to a high rating with a large lobby or a generous welcome offer. A casino that scores 6 on payments and a perfect 10 on everything else lands at exactly 9.0, the best result that a mediocre withdrawal allows. In practice, a rating of 9 or more on this site means a casino did well in every category at once, not brilliantly in one.

A rating in the 8s usually means one clear weakness, and the review names it: a lobby that is hard to navigate, conditions that suit patient players more than casual ones, a live section smaller than its rivals. Casinos that failed our withdrawal test are not given a rating at all; some of them are discussed in casinos to avoid.

What pulls a rating down between tests

A published rating is not frozen until the next monthly cycle. We reopen it sooner when one of these happens:

• the bonus terms in the cashier no longer match the terms we scored;
• a payment method we tested disappears, or a new document is requested at withdrawal;
• the licence entry on the regulator's register changes status or company name;
• several readers write to us about the same problem within a short period.

Reader reports are treated as a reason to re-test the specific thing people describe, not as votes to be averaged into the score. When a rating changes, the review says what changed and when.

Using our casino ratings for your own priorities

Our weights suit a player who cares most about getting money back out. Yours may differ. If you only play live blackjack, the games and live casino score is the one to read first, and a casino rated 8.5 with a strong live section may suit you better than one rated 9.1 for its slots. The category notes in each review exist so that you can make that swap without redoing our work.

Update Frequency

Full testing cycles run every 30 days. Bonus codes and offers are checked weekly. Withdrawal speed data is updated with each monthly cycle or when a casino reports a material change to its payment processing.

When we update a score or finding, we note the date at the bottom of the relevant article.

What We Don't Test

We don't test every slot in a library — 1,000-game catalogues aren't reviewable title-by-title. We verify provider names, game count, and run sessions on representative titles from each major provider. We note specific popular titles where relevant to players.

We don't test every possible payment method at every casino. We focus on e-wallets (Skrill, Neteller), bank transfer and, where available, cryptocurrency. We note which payment methods are supported based on the casino's own banking page.

The casinos we rate today

Five casinos currently hold a rating, each built from the process above. The scores and the one-line reason behind each are in our casino reviews and ratings table; the full reviews are here:

• CasinoPurple review, first-deposit code PURPLE100 for a 100% match. Visit CasinoPurple
• ZeSlots review, code ZESLOTS250 for 250%. Visit ZeSlots
• YourWin24 review, code YOUR250 for 250%. Visit YourWin24
• Cas2Bet review, code CAS100 for 100%. Visit Cas2Bet
• CasinoWinner review, code WIN300 for 300%. Visit CasinoWinner

Licensing is part of every rating, and our guides to the Malta Gaming Authority licence and the Curacao gaming licence explain what we look for on each register.

Our Team

Withdrawal testing: James Whitfield, Senior Casino Analyst.
Live casino and slot testing: Elena Moraes, Slots & Live Casino Editor.
Nordic market coverage: Marcus Lindqvist, Nordic Correspondent.
Eastern Europe coverage: Adina Constantin, Eastern Europe Editor.

Corrections

If you believe data in any of our articles is factually incorrect, email [email protected] with a source. We investigate within 5 business days. Confirmed corrections are applied immediately and noted at the bottom of the affected article.

Casino ratings FAQ