How We Rate Australian Online Casinos: The Steps Review Process

We’re a team of Aussie casino players with decades of experience and bags of passion for online casino gaming. Each of us comes from a different background and has various experiences in the online casino world that we want to share with you. Hopefully, we can grow our team further to offer even more perspectives in time. Our mission is to share our valuable experience with you and help you find the best online casinos in Australia.

Our Review Principles

Our Review Process

We have an in-depth review process that our assigned experts carry out whenever they evaluate a new online casino. Let’s have a look at the steps they follow and what’s involved in each one.

Step 1: Casino Information, Safety and Security

The first thing we do when reviewing an online casino is finding out basic information about the site, such as the casino’s licence, its safety features, and the player safety options, to get an overall picture of how the site operates. Let’s delve into how we check for each of these criteria:

• Gambling Licence – Each licensed casino has a small badge at the bottom of the page, signifying that it is licensed by a regulated gambling authority. We then check with that authority to ensure the site has a valid licence. Some of the trusted authorities we look for are the UK Gambling Commission, the Malta Gaming Authority, and many more.
• Player Safety – We want to know that the site we’re reviewing takes player safety seriously, so we observe the site’s responsible gambling page and evaluate the responsible gambling tools on offer. Some of the tools we look for include deposit limits, reality checks, and self-exclusion.
• Site Security – You need to know that your funds and data will be safe on any casino you choose, so we check each site for things like SSL encryption and the latest firewalls.

Step 2: Casino Design

Once we’ve gathered the background information, we analyse the interface design of the casino. While it may seem superficial, it’s important for a site to look nice, as it should be pleasant for you to observe the good looking site’s appearance. There are two other key points that our experts look at when evaluating the site design:

• Ease of Navigation – A site’s design also has a major impact on how easy it is to use. We check to see how easy it is to navigate around the site and find the games you want to play.
• Mobile Site Design – Some online casinos put all their effort into the desktop version and end up neglecting the mobile site. We check to ensure that the mobile site is just as good, if not better, than the desktop version.

Step 3: Creating an Account

The next step our experts take is to create an account at the online casino. While creating, they take note of how easy the sign-up process is, as well as what information they require from you during the process. In our mind, the easier the sign-up process, the better, as no one wants to be filling out tons of forms instead of playing online casino games.

Step 4: First Impressions

After creating our account, we take a look around and gather our first impressions of the site. Does it live up to the hype? Does it offer everything we thought it would? We do a quick check of the whole site, including payment options, game selection, security features, and game providers, to make sure we aren’t misfolded in our promised casino experience.

Step 5: Game Review

Arguably the most important part of any online casino is its game selection, and for us, it’s the most important part of the review process. Gambling should be all about fun, so a casino needs to offer the very best online casino games. When evaluating the games, there are a few things our experts pay attention to:

• Game Selection – It should go without saying that the more games a casino has, the better. However, we believe that an online casino should have a range of game types, such as online slots, table games, live casino games, and many more.
• RTP – Everyone wants the best chance of winning possible when playing an online casino game, which is why we check the average RTP of a site’s games to ensure that you’re getting that chance.
• Game Quality – It’s not enough for a casino to have a wide selection of games; we believe that it needs to offer high-quality games to its players. We check the quality of the games on offer, namely graphic, sound, and animation. Additionally, we consider the reputation of the software providers responsible for supplying these games.

Step 6: Bonuses & Promotions

Everyone loves getting a bonus, particularly an online casino bonus. These promotions can offer you a risk-free way to enjoy online casino games while still having a chance to win real money. Here’s what we look for when evaluating a site’s bonuses:

• Fair T&Cs – There’s no point in taking advantage of a huge welcome offer if there’s no chance that you’re going to keep any of the money. We check the T&Cs of each site’s bonus to ensure that they offer a fair chance of winning.
• Bonus Variety – Our readers deserve a lot more than a run-of-the-mill welcome package and the occasional free spins bonus. That’s why we evaluate each site on the bonus variety it offers, ensuring you’ll always have something new to claim.
• Bonus Size – Of course, we also check the size of the bonus to ensure our readers are getting the best value for money.

Step 7: Payment Options

To be able to claim a site’s bonus, you often need to make a deposit, so our next step is to check the payment options available on a site. Being able to quickly and easily deposit and withdraw is a key part of a positive online casino pastime. After all, no one wants to be worrying about how they’re going to fund their account when they could be claiming generous bonuses and playing online casino games.

• Number of Payment Options – We pick online casinos offering a range of different deposit and withdrawal methods, allowing you to pick the one that best suits your needs.
• Withdrawal Times – After a big winning session, you don’t want to be bogged down waiting for your withdrawal to hit your account, so we check the average withdrawal times of all payment methods on the site together with the additional requirements applied for withdrawing substantial amounts of money.
• Fee Structure – When it comes to online casino fees, the fewer, the better. No one wants to have part of their winnings taken off them when withdrawing, so we check each site’s fee structure to warn you in advance.

Step 8: Customer Support

We take a hands-on approach to customer support and really put them through their paces when evaluating a new site. We address problems for the support team to handle, contact them in a number of different ways, and evaluate them based on how they go about resolving our issues.

• Availability – The first thing we evaluate a support team on is their availability. Aussie players gamble at all hours of the day, so support should be available whenever you have a question.
• Helpfulness – It’s no secret that some customer support teams are better than others. The more helpful a support team is, the more likely it is that a negative online casino experience will turn into a positive one.
• Response Time – The last thing you want to be doing when you have a major issue is sitting around waiting to hear back from support, so we check how long it takes for each arm of the support team to respond to us after logging our issue.

Step 9: VIP Programs & Other Features

Once we’ve hit the key areas of an online casino, we take our time to evaluate some other features a site may have. These are the features that may set a casino apart from its competitors, so it’s important that we take our time to evaluate everything they have to offer. Here are some of the things we take into account:

• VIP Program – Some of the best online casinos will reward you for playing on their site in the form of a VIP Program, so we take a look to see whether they’re really worth it.
• Mobile App – Those who love to gamble on the go will know how much easier it is to gamble from a dedicated mobile app compared to a mobile-optimised website, so we check each site to see if it offers a downloadable mobile application.
• Multiple Currencies/Languages – We live in a cosmopolitan age where people from all over the world enjoy online gambling, so it’s a nice touch when a casino offers its products in multiple languages and currencies.

Step 10: User Reviews

After looking through everything an online casino has to offer, we listen to what you have to say. An online casino’s reputation is its lifeblood, and if a site has been unethical in the past, it’s important to know that before recommending it. We use a number of different methods to gather information on what the average Australian player thinks about a site:

• Social Media – Many players will take to social media to praise a new casino they’ve been loving or to lament an online casino that has done them wrong.
• User Review Sites – We also check sites such as Trustpilot and AskGamblers to read honest reviews of online casinos and look for potential issues that could be red flags.
• Ask Our Readers – In the end, our readers are why we do this, so we seek your opinion when evaluating the reputation of an online casino.

Step 11: Evaluation

Once we’ve gathered all the available information, we collect all of that data and combine it into one comprehensive online casino review for you to enjoy.

How We Set Rating Of Online Casinos

When rating online casinos, we use a star rating system to easily communicate what we think of the site. Below, we’ve created a handy star guide that allows you to see exactly what our star ratings mean:

Blacklisted Online Casinos

A blacklisted casino is an online casino that has shown a pattern of unethical practices and has a poor enough reputation amongst the online gambling community that it is generally accepted that no one should play on the site. It takes a lot for a casino to be put on a blacklist, and here are some of the ways a casino can be blacklisted:

1. No Licence – It’s essential that any legitimate online casino is licensed by a respectable gambling authority. If a casino refuses to be licensed or fakes its licence, it is an indicator of unethical practices.
2. Rejected Withdrawals – When a site starts to refuse player withdrawals with no legitimate reason, it can find its way onto a blacklist.
3. Rigged Games – If the casino tries to skew the RNG in the house’s favour, it will immediately end up on a blacklist.
4. Lack of Responsible Gambling – If a casino has a flagrant disregard for responsible gambling regulations, it is actively putting players in harm’s way and will be blacklisted.

Disclaimer

Everyone wants to win money at an online casino, but let’s be fair: skill-based games or card games like poker offer better chances of winning regularly compared to games like pokies and slots. To that end, we never provide misleading information, promote gambling addiction, or discuss bonus hunting.

Conclusion

We take reviewing online casinos extremely seriously, and our team of casino experts have a thorough 11-step guide that is strictly followed. They check for things that matter most to Aussie players, such as the game selection, safety features, bonuses, and much more. Our goal is to share our passion for online casinos with the world and help you find the best online casino to suit your needs, so make sure you check us out the next time you’re looking for a new one.