How we rate casinos

What counts

Only reviews with status "published" enter the score. Reviews held for moderation and rejected reviews do not. A review counts once; edits replace the original and are re-screened before republication. The rating distribution bars on each profile show raw, unweighted counts and percentages of published reviews so you can see the shape behind the number.

• One review per player per casino (enforced at the database level).
• Reports from other readers never change a review's status — they queue it for a human moderator.
• Casino replies are displayed but have no effect on the score.

Screening rules before publication

Every submission passes an automated screen. The screen never deletes a review; it decides whether the review publishes immediately or waits for a human, and it records the reason so moderators (and the author) can see it.

• Honeypot field filled → rejected silently (bot behaviour).
• Form submitted faster than a human could read it, or with an invalid token → asked to try again.
• Same account, same review body as an earlier submission → rejected as duplicate.
• Contains a URL, @handle or promo code → held for moderation.
• Contains a banned term → held for moderation.
• Account created less than 24 hours ago → held for moderation.
• First review from an account with no published history → held for moderation.
• Otherwise → published immediately and counted.

What "Verified" means

A reviewer can attach an optional proof note — a transaction reference, a screenshot description, a support ticket number. A moderator who checks it may mark the review Verified. The badge tells you a human looked at evidence of the experience. It does not change the score by any amount: Verified is a display badge with zero weight, and it is granted only by staff, never automatically.

The Early rating rule

A score appears from the first published review — the prior does the work of keeping it sensible. But a score built on one to four reviews can change a lot with the next one, so those profiles carry an "Early rating · based on n reviews" label, and they are excluded from top-rated lists on the homepage and category pages until they reach the threshold shown in the constants table above.

Ranking on listing pages

"Most relevant" multiplies TrustScore by a confidence factor for reviewed casinos: min(1, ln(1 + reviews) / ln(1 + RANK_FULL_WEIGHT_REVIEWS)). A 4.6 with 40 reviews therefore outranks a 4.7 with 6. Ties break by review count, then name. "Highest rated" sorts by raw TrustScore with review count as tiebreaker; casinos with no reviews sort last. "Most reviewed" and "Newest" are what they say.

In the real-operator dataset, no-review casinos follow the disclosed owner-selected editorial order under the default "Most relevant" sort. Under "Highest rated", the no-review tail is ordered by the separate facts score. A profile with published reviews leads one without under both sorts. The fictional demo retains its own facts-score fallback.

Partner placement

Commercial partners are labelled wherever their cards appear. Featured cards sit in a separate band, and partner status never enters TrustScore or the facts score. The default numbered list begins in an editorial order selected by the site owner, who placed TTBet and BCB88 first and second. That order is not a player rating, payout test or independent safety verdict. A separate facts-score sort is available; review-backed results lead by TrustScore once enough player reviews exist.

Partners are reviewed by the same rules as everyone else. Their reviews pass the same screening, their facts are scored by the same rubric, and the factual "good and bad" notes on every profile are generated from stored facts alone — never written to favour or disfavour a partner.

Editorial reviews

Some profiles carry an editorial review written by iamcasino staff. It is written from the operator's public pages — banking page, FAQ, terms, promotions, contact page — on a date shown at the top of the review, and every factual line in it is either the operator's own stated claim, attributed as such, or a plain restatement of a stored fact. We do not open accounts, deposit, play or contact support to write it, and the review says so.

An editorial review is not a player review. It is not counted in the TrustScore or facts score. The numbered opening order and separate editorial-picks guide are subjective: the owner chose commercial partners TTBet and BCB88 for the first two positions, and the remaining positions reflect our reading of publicly stated information, not play-testing. Where the operator is a commercial partner, the review says so in its first lines. A fact the operator has not confirmed is written as what its pages state, never as settled.

What affects each score and order

TrustScore uses only published player reviews. Payout window, payment rails, support channels, languages, app and licence status feed the separate facts score by the fixed weights above. Bonus size, wagering terms, minimum deposit and partner status enter neither score. The default no-review order is instead a disclosed editorial choice; TTBet and BCB88 occupy the first two positions at the owner's request. Filters and the explicit sort menu can change the displayed order. There is no bonus sort on this site.