Casino Review Process and Rating Criteria
The online gambling market is lucrative, and all sorts of people are involved in it. Naturally, players in every country want to play their favorite games from the comfort of their homes and search for online casinos featuring hefty bonuses. When encountering a flashy casino bonus and the latest game releases, safety becomes an afterthought.
The sheer number of online casinos and lack of guidance on selection makes sites like Bonus1 essential. To help, we’ve established a rigorous rating system to objectively review online casinos and highlight whether they are worth playing at. We look at several factors and assign ratings to help you stay safe while gambling online and only invest your money in services that will treat you with respect.
Continue below for insights into our process and rating system.
Areas we review at online casinos
We are out to hook you up with the best online casino bonuses. Our reviews always focus on this aspect. However, we look at several other areas to ensure you won’t be playing at a scam site that is trying to lure you in with a flashy bonus to then defraud you. Here are the main areas we test at every online casino and why they matter:
• Bonuses: The largest bonus isn’t always the best. We look at whether the bonus funds are cashable, the qualifying games and wagering requirements, and several other T&Cs to ensure everything works according to the industry standard. Promotions for existing players are also important since they guarantee long-term value for our readers.
• Official License: Our reviews explore licensed online casinos for each market they operate in. We don’t even consider offshore online casinos or operators with second-class licenses. If a casino holds a valid license from the iGaming authority of the country it operates in, we ensure it has been renewed and there are no red flags or pending disputes.
• Safety: Online casinos deal with significant amounts of money and process numerous daily transactions. They also store sensitive information of their registered players. To receive our approval, a casino must clearly explain how it utilizes its users’ information and the safeguards in place to protect it from unauthorized access. SSL encryption software is a requisite for a casino to be regarded as safe by Bonus1 reviewers.
• Games: Our assessment of games and developers featured at online casinos depends on the country. Authorities grant licenses to gaming devs after their games pass through rigorous RNG and RTP tests. We prefer fewer but quality games than thousands of options by unknown studios with untested slot machines. Having said that, we expect online casinos to host all sorts of games, add new titles regularly, and provide a diverse range of mechanics and at least some jackpots. We know our readers actively search for the above and want toensure they have some good options to put our exclusive deals to good use.
• Support: Live chat and email support services are integral to a positive user experience. Players regularly have questions about bonuses, the KYC process, or simply want to set responsible gambling limits – streamlined access to real representatives is a must for all these reasons, and more. We check whether the casino’s contact methods work, the response times, and the quality of the service. Our team ensures you only end up at online gambling sites where you will be treated with respect, as a paying customer.
The user experience, registration process, KYC steps, mobile compatibility, responsible gambling tools, reputation, user reviews, track record, managing company, and more areas are covered in our reviews, too.
Our experts then assign a rating to each category, and we provide a quick overview of every online casino we review to set your expectations straight without wasting too much time. Of course, our reviews expand on each area in case you want to learn more through our findings and personal experience with the casino.
How we apply our ratings
Our ratings account for several aspects within each area. For example, our bonus rating at a casino comprises the size of the welcome bonus and promotions, the frequency of deals for existing users, the structure and rewards of the VIP scheme, and the rules underpinning each of the above. If a casino ties its bonuses with unfair rules that make cashing out real money impossible, then we will give this area a zero rating.
As you can see, it takes a lot of time and research on our side to properly assess a casino across all departments. However, ignoring our expert views and randomly signing up at an online casino could prove detrimental to your wallet and well-being. We go through the fine print and report every aspect of casinos we review in detail to ensure you have a pleasant gambling experience if you rely on us for your casino picks.
Our ratings are an excellent way to quickly assess the casino’s quality in the departments that matter the most to you!
Why we review online casinos
Bonus1 began as a small website managed by enthusiastic casino gamers. Over time, we grew and onboarded additional researchers, editors, casino testers, and writers with an interest in online gambling.
All of us enjoy playing online casino games and we understand why bonuses matter to readers. However, too many operators use flashy bonuses and falsely advertise their services to lure in players and swindle them. Early on in our gambling days, we fell prey to illegitimate casinos ourselves, which is why we started this venture.
Our aim is to find the best casino deals and bring them to you. We always tell things as they are, if a casino underperforms, we will clearly state so. Like most other gambling websites, we occasionally make a profit through affiliate deals. However, we never let financial interests influence our review process – the work we do here is guided by strong ethics and our sole goal is to create a safer online gambling environment for our audience.
Casinos to avoid
Online casinos we review fall into three main categories:
• Recommended
• Average
Our staff contacts casinos we consider excellent in all aspects and try to partner with them. These are the sites you’ll typically find on our top lists, with exclusive promo codes to get you started with a leg up.
Average online casinos are usually smaller brands or newer operators. Such casinos are not dangerous per se, yet we believe you could do better. We rarely recommend such operators unless they have a standout feature players actively search for.
And then we have untrustworthy casinos. These sites end up on our blacklist, and we actively warn you against playing there. Dodgy casinos typically don’t hold a license, have stolen the funds of other players without justification or failed to pay them, or have unfair games or T&Cs.
Our extensive review process makes it easy to classify casinos in one of the above categories, and our ratings instantly indicate the casino’s status.
Discover legit online casino bonuses tailored to you
Bonus1 reviews online casinos operating in regulated and legal gambling markets only. These sites are the safest you can play at, with fair T&Cs, tested games, and easily accessible responsible gambling tools. Instead of manually searching for the best casino for you on the web, you can review legal casinos in your area, and claim their bonuses, through the following guides:
• Canada
• UK
• USA
Conclusion
We decided to create this page and explain our review process so that you understand the importance of properly assessing online casinos before claiming a bonus at random. We don’t want to scare you or present our services as a prerequisite to safe online gambling, but we cannot stress the importance of the casino selection process enough.
If you prefer to take this task on you, utilize the same criteria we do so that you don’t compromise your safety. Every market has a fair number of decent online casinos, you just have to know where to look. And Bonus1 reviewers guarantee we are the one-stop-shop to top-notch bonuses at legit casino sites.