How We Rate & Review Australian Online Casinos

To ensure a casino’s website is safe, we always check for SSL/TLS encryption. This prevents unauthorised third parties from accessing your personal or banking information.

The casino should be licensed by a reputable gambling authority to ensure it complies with all relevant gambling laws. Any brand worth its salt will have certificates proving their games and software have been tested for fairness.

We search for online reviews detailing the experience of other players and also use our contacts in the online casino industry to ensure the casino has a reputation for being trustworthy.

The terms and conditions are read in full to ensure they are not diverting too far off from the industry standard, putting players at unfair disadvantages.

Exactly how many casino games the casino has is not the most important factor — although we do check for this — but instead the versatility of the games on offer at any one casino. We expect to find a good mix of pokies, table games, specialty games, and preferably also a live casino.

If the operator features other game verticals, such as sports betting, poker, bingo, or any other game type, we check the quality and game offerings and compare them to other leading operators in the market.

We always specifically look at the game providers that are available to the Australian market, as many online casinos restrict certain providers for Aussie players. The most important factor is the quality and fairness of games offered by the various game developers.

All online casinos we feature offer real money games. But we also check if they allow players to partake for free, using demo games. This is something we test both when logged in and out of our player account.

The welcome bonus should preferably be an offer that’s enticing to all player segments, both those who wish to make a small minimum deposit and those who are high rollers. If it contains both a match bonus and free spins – that’s even better.

There should be enough ongoing promotions to ensure you can regularly get something extra when you deposit and play at the casino.

It should be lucrative to be a loyal player, so regular rewards throughout the casino journey and benefits for active players are almost a must.

Bonus terms should ideally keep to the industry standard or be better. We check the wagering requirements, max bet, minimum required deposit, max win limit, and all other relevant terms.

Ideally, we like seeing a good mix of fiat and cryptocurrency options, both for deposits and withdrawals, to ensure all Aussies can find a method they’re comfortable with and have access to.

Nowadays, we always expect both deposits and withdrawals to be fee-free — but it’s still something we check for. We’re always looking for ways you can avoid paying more than you have to.

To accommodate all players, we always note the payment limits for all available payment methods — both for deposits and withdrawals. This ensures both casual and professional players can find options suitable for them.

The KYC process is unavoidable at most casinos, but it should always be as straightforward and hassle-free as possible. That’s why we check the ease of uploading documents and which specific documents the casino requires.

Getting help should be quick, especially if you use the live chat option. When testing the support, we always make a note of both the initial response time as well as the total resolution time frame.

It’s important that the support agents at the casino have received sufficient training in order to provide real help, without the need to continuously escalate the issue to another team member or department.

It should be possible to use multiple contact channels when reaching out to the support team. Live chat and email is always expected, but it’s an additional benefit if it’s possible to get help by phone or through social channels.

A social media presence is not a requirement, but we do consider it a benefit. It’s a nice way to keep up with available promotions — but mainly it’s because only reputable casinos tend to put themselves out there on social channels and forums.

One of the first things we do when reviewing an online casino is to sign up as a new player. We make sure that the registration form only asks for details they have to obtain according to their gambling licence, so they don’t ask for additional personal details they don’t need.

The website, or the app, should be easy to use, and it shouldn’t take more than a few clicks to get from one game or service to another. As a part of this, we also check the game categories and filters to see how easy it is to find the various game types.

The usability and experience when using a mobile or a tablet with a small screen is always something we look into. We expect to find a responsive site made to fit our screen size, or a separate website only for mobile users.

Any Australian online casino should be localised for Aussie players, offering Australian Dollars as currency. Additionally, we check that the customer support’s opening hours are suitable to our timezone.