First Deposit / How I test
Editorial policy
How I test, and how I correct myself
Last updated 26 July 2026 · Judge the method, not the conclusion
This page exists so you can judge my method rather than my conclusions. If the method is weak, the conclusions are worthless no matter how confidently I write them.
The five rules
I register like anyone else
No press account, no reviewer terms, no contact with the casino before or during the test. If an operator ever recognises me and offers special treatment, the test stops and I write about the offer instead.
I use my own money, starting at the minimum
Usually twenty dollars. Nobody funds these accounts for me. The first deposit is a test of the cashier, not of my luck, and a small one tells you almost everything a large one would.
I read the bonus terms before claiming, out loud, in the review
The wagering multiplier, what each game type contributes, the expiry, the maximum cashout. This is the step I skipped as a beginner and it is the step that cost me money.
I screenshot everything
Dated, with markings pointing at the specific thing I am talking about. You should be able to verify a claim without taking my word for it.
I withdraw, and I time it
Click to bank, measured. Then I contact support with a deliberately basic question to see what a new player would actually get.
The seven stages of a full test
| Stage | What gets measured |
|---|---|
| 01 Sign-up | Time taken, fields required, whether the currency choice is clear enough that a beginner will not pick the wrong one |
| 02 ID check | Documents accepted, hours to approval, done before depositing |
| 03 Deposit | Minimum amount, arrival time, fees, whether the balance shows in real Canadian dollars |
| 04 Bonus | Exact wagering figure, game contribution rates, expiry, maximum cashout, what happens when the clock runs out |
| 05 Games | Stability on laptop and phone, live stream over café wifi, whether RTP is findable without a treasure hunt |
| 06 Withdrawal | Click to bank, timed. The stage that decides everything else |
| 07 Support | Response time and answer quality, in English and in French, at an awkward hour |
How I read other people’s reviews
Before testing a casino myself, I go through what other players have published. Not all sources are worth the same, so I weight them:
- Complaint databases first. Casino Guru and AskGamblers run mediation with public case files: dates, amounts, the operator’s reply, the outcome. A casino can delete a comment. It cannot delete a complaint file.
- Open review platforms second. Useful for spotting repeated patterns in the one-star reviews. Not useful as a score, because operators can invite happy players to post and that lifts the average.
- Affiliate sites last, including this one. I have found the same casino described as flawless and as a red flag by two sites that both earn commission. Always ask who gets paid when you click.
And I separate every negative review into two piles: “I lost” and “they did not pay”. Those read identically when somebody is upset and they could not be more different. Losing is the product working. Not paying is a breach.
On the word rigged
It is the most common complaint about any casino and the least reliable. Return to player is measured over millions of spins. A few hundred tells you nothing, so a losing session is not evidence of anything except a losing session. I set those reviews aside and count the specific ones about money and rules instead.
What I publish, even when it is inconvenient
- Anything that went wrong during the test, including my own mistakes
- Contradictions between what an operator says in one place and another
- Limits and caps that only matter if you win, which are the ones nobody advertises
- The fact that the casino in question pays commission to this site
What I will not do
- Accept payment for a positive verdict or a ranking position
- Let an operator preview or approve a page before it goes live
- Publish a score for a casino I have not tested myself
- Recommend a casino to someone who has told me they are struggling to stop
Corrections
I will get things wrong. Casinos change their terms without notice, sources disagree, and I am one person reading a lot of small print.
When I find or am told about an error, I fix it, change the date at the top of the page, and note what changed. I do not silently rewrite a page and hope nobody noticed, because that is the exact behaviour I criticise operators for. If you spot something, the contact page has an address for corrections specifically, and I would genuinely rather hear it from you than not.
Independence, honestly stated
This site earns commission from some of the casinos it covers, including ones I have criticised on their own pages. That is a real conflict of interest and pretending otherwise would be worse than admitting it. My defence is procedural: sources are linked, screenshots are dated, the negatives stay in, and you are invited to check every number. Read how this site makes money for the full picture.
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