The Eight Criteria and Their Weights
Every operator is scored out of 100 against the same eight criteria, and the weights do not change between reviews.
| Criterion | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Licensing and regulatory standing | 25% | Which authority registered the operator, whether the licence number is verifiable in a public register, whether player funds are segregated |
| Real payout speed | 20% | The pending period plus the time the payment rail needs, measured from request to money in hand |
| Honesty of bonus terms | 15% | The wagering multiplier, what it applies to, max bet, game contribution rates, expiry window |
| Game range | 10% | Total titles, live dealer tables, jackpot coverage, studio quality |
| Canadian payment support | 10% | Interac, iDebit, CAD accounts, withdrawal limits and caps |
| Mobile experience | 8% | Native apps against browser play, cashier parity, login security |
| Customer support | 7% | Channels, hours and response time on a withdrawal question |
| Responsible gambling tools | 5% | Deposit and loss limits, session timers, cooling-off, self-exclusion |
Why Licensing and Payouts Carry Half the Score
The licence decides who hears your complaint when a payout stalls. Without a named regulator and a verifiable number, every other feature is a promise with nothing behind it, which is why licensing carries the single largest weight.
Payout speed is second because it is the point at which a site either performs or does not. A large bonus and a deep game library mean little if the cashier takes a week. Together these two factors carry 45% of the score, and an operator that scores poorly on both cannot reach our shortlists regardless of how well it does elsewhere.
How We Test
- Register an account as an ordinary player, from the province the site serves, with no press access or reviewer status.
- Complete identity verification at the point the operator requires it, and record what documents were requested and how long approval took.
- Deposit C$20 through Interac where available, noting whether the deposit is instant and how the transaction appears on a bank statement.
- Play part of the balance across slots and, where offered, live tables, to confirm the lobby works as advertised and that game contribution matches the published terms.
- Request a withdrawal and time it in two parts: the operator’s own pending period, and the time the payment rail needs to deliver the money.
- Ask support one identical question at every site, phrased the same way, about withdrawal timing, then record the channel, the hours and the reply time.
- Read the bonus terms line by line, including the wagering multiplier, what it applies to, max bet while clearing, game contribution and expiry.
- Verify the licence by taking the number from the site footer and searching the register of the authority that issued it.
What Does Not Affect a Score
- Commercial relationships. Where they exist, they do not buy a position, a rating or a place on a shortlist, and no operator sees a review before publication;
- Marketing claims. A headline bonus figure earns nothing on its own; only the terms attached to it are scored;
- Brand size or advertising spend. A well-known name with a slow cashier scores below a smaller one that pays the same day;
- Operator feedback. We welcome corrections of fact, and we correct errors, but an operator cannot negotiate its score.
Editorial Ratings, Not Measurements
The scores we publish are editorial judgements produced by applying the weights above to what testing found. They are not laboratory measurements, and they are not guarantees. A rating says an operator performed well against our criteria when we assessed it. It does not promise that your withdrawal will clear at the same speed, that a bonus will suit your play style, or that a dispute will go your way.
Ratings between operators separated by a tenth of a point are close enough to treat as equivalent. The larger gaps are the ones that carry information.
Review Cycle and Corrections
Operators are reassessed regularly and out of cycle whenever something material changes: a new licence or the loss of one, a change to wagering requirements, the arrival or removal of a payment method, or a pattern of payout complaints.
Because terms move faster than any publishing schedule, the operator’s own terms always prevail over what is written here. If you find a discrepancy, write to support@GamblingSites. Confirmed errors are corrected promptly, and where a correction changes a score we update the ranking with it.
Limitations We Will Not Hide
Testing is a snapshot. One withdrawal is not a statistical sample, a support reply on a Tuesday afternoon may not match one at 3am, and an operator can change its terms the day after we publish. Weightings reflect what we think matters most to Canadian players, but they encode a judgement: a reader who cares only about game count would rank these sites differently, and that is a legitimate difference of priorities rather than an error.
We publish the framework so you can apply your own weights to the same facts.