Top Paying Online Casinos: our rating method

The usual comparison page orders casinos by how big the welcome offer looks. We rank them by what happens after you sign up. Six criteria carry the score, and each is described here next to the habit it replaces, so you can see where our approach differs from a typical list.

1. Licence, read from the register. Many lists repeat whatever the footer says. We take the number and look it up at gamingcommission.ca, then match the company name to the terms. A footer badge with no register entry behind it does not count, and the brand is not reviewed further.
2. Return figures, read from the paytable. The usual shortcut is to quote a provider's headline percentage. We open the game and read the figure inside it, because studios release several builds of one title. We look for 96%+ on slots from Pragmatic Play and Games Global, and we keep the up to 99.9% figure for video poker only.
3. Cashier, tested with money. Rather than copying the payment page, an editor deposits, asks for a withdrawal and times it. Deposit methods such as Interac and Visa are tried. Withdrawals are judged against the window the casino itself prints, and surprise document requests are logged.
4. Support, tested at odd hours. Quoted support hours tell you little. We write to live chat in the evening and at weekends, and note how long the first human answer takes and whether the agent can read your account.
5. Mobile, tested on a real handset. A responsive layout in a desktop emulator is not the same as a working cashier on a phone. Our editors complete a full deposit and withdrawal request in a mobile browser. If the page sends them to the desktop version, that is recorded.
6. Protection tools, tested in settings. Instead of ticking a box labelled responsible gaming, we set a deposit, loss and session limit, request a time-out and locate self-exclusion. Self-exclusion is a per-brand action, and we say so. Blackjack must pay 3:2, not 6:5.

A typical list is written in a day. Ours takes several sittings, because each criterion needs its own session on a funded account. Notes, screenshots and timestamps are kept, a second editor reads them, and the review is published with its test date. When a casino changes its terms, the affected criterion is repeated rather than the whole review being rewritten from memory.

Like most review sites, we earn money when readers join through our links. Unlike a pay-to-rank list, that fee is identical across brands and never touches the order. A brand that fails any criterion is dropped. This site is for readers of legal age (19+, or 18+ in AB, MB, QC). See responsible gaming for limits and help.