Every ranking, score and recommendation on this site follows the same written methodology, applied the same way to every operator we cover. This page explains it in full — what we check, in what order, how the weighting works, how often we re-test, and what we refuse to do regardless of who asks.
Licence Check Comes First, Always
Before anything about an operator’s games, bonuses or design ever factors into a score, we confirm it is actually licensed to operate where we’re covering it. That check happens against the official registry itself, not a copy of it:
If an operator fails this first check, it is not ranked here at all, no matter how it performs on anything else below.
What We Actually Test
Licensing tells us an operator is allowed to take Canadian players. It doesn’t tell us what using it is actually like, so our testing process goes further, using real accounts rather than marketing material or press releases:
- Real money deposits and withdrawals. We fund an account, play through modest, realistic amounts, and request a withdrawal the same way any player would — timing how long funds actually take to clear, and noting any friction (extra verification steps, minimum thresholds, method restrictions) along the way.
- Support probes. We contact live chat and, where offered, phone support with the kind of question a new player would actually ask, and judge the response on accuracy and how long it took to reach a person.
- Lobby audits. We check that the games listed are genuinely available (not just advertised), that RTP information is accessible where the game provider publishes it, and that the lobby isn’t structured to bury better-value titles under promoted ones.
None of this is a one-time snapshot before launch — see the re-testing section below.
How We Score: 30 / 25 / 20 / 15 / 10
Every operator we rank is scored against five categories, weighted by how much they actually affect a player’s experience and safety:
Click a segment to see what it covers.
| Category | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Safety & Licensing | 30% | Confirmed registration status, licence conditions, complaint history |
| Payout Speed & Reliability | 25% | Real withdrawal timing, verification friction, any pattern of delay |
| Games | 20% | Game availability, provider quality, lobby transparency |
| Payment Methods | 15% | Range of deposit/withdrawal options, limits, fees |
| Support | 10% | Response accuracy and speed across chat and phone |
Safety and payout reliability carry the most weight deliberately — they’re the two areas where a bad operator can genuinely cost a player money, versus games or support quality, which affect experience but not solvency.
Monthly Re-Testing and Changelogs
Licensing status, payout behaviour and game libraries all change. We re-run this process monthly rather than treating a launch-day review as permanent, and where a score or ranking position changes as a result, we note what changed and when. A five-star operator from six months ago earns that position again every month, not just once.
What We Will Not Do
A few lines we don’t cross, regardless of what an operator offers in exchange:
- We will not rank or list an offshore operator that lacks a licence in the province we’re covering it for, even if it’s popular or long-running elsewhere.
- We will not publish specific bonus offers or amounts. Several provinces restrict public advertising of inducements, and any site publicly quoting you a bonus figure in a regulated market is either wrong or not actually compliant.
- We will not accept payment for a better ranking position, and any affiliate relationship we do have never determines where an operator sits in our results — see our full funding disclosure for how that separation works in practice.
See the Results
This methodology feeds two kinds of pages: the Province Index, which tracks what’s actually licensed where, and our ranked Top 5 pages for Ontario and Alberta, updated on the same monthly cycle described above.