Our Editorial Standards

What This Page Is

This is our full editorial policy. It governs how we research, write, rank, and monetise the content on CreditCardCasinos.ca. We publish it because transparency is a claim that requires evidence — and this document is that evidence.

Commission Independence

We earn referral commission when users sign up at casinos via our links. This is how we fund our testing — real deposits at 34 casinos from 9 Canadian banks cost real money ($2,400 in our February 2025 cycle alone).

How we ensure commission doesn’t influence rankings:

• Fixed scoring criteria: Our scoring weights are published (30% CC acceptance, 25% payout reliability, 20% licensing, 15% RG tools, 10% support) and do not change based on commission rates.
• Commission is not a scoring factor. There is no input in our scoring model for “commission rate.” A casino paying us $200/signup is scored identically to one paying $50/signup.
• We have rejected high-commission sites. Multiple sites offering above-average commission rates have been rejected because they failed our criteria. We don’t disclose specific commission rates, but we confirm that our highest-paying partner is not our #1-ranked site.
• Editorial and business are separate. James Mackay (Editor-in-Chief) has final authority on rankings. Business relationships are managed separately and do not influence editorial decisions.

Corrections Policy

If we publish an error — factual, typographical, or analytical — we correct it within 48 hours of verification and note the correction in our changelog on the homepage. Our corrections process:

1. Error reported: Via email to [email protected] or identified internally.
2. Verification: Karen Webb (Regulatory & Compliance) verifies whether the reported issue is actually an error.
3. Correction: If verified, the error is corrected on the site within 48 hours.
4. Changelog entry: The correction is logged in our homepage changelog with the date, what was wrong, and what was corrected.

Past corrections: We have issued 3 corrections since launch in March 2019:

• Corrected an RBC acceptance rate that was based on incomplete test data (2023)
• Updated a Kahnawake licence number that had been renewed under a new format (2024)
• Corrected the CIBC policy description after their January 2025 agreement revision removed gambling restrictions

We take corrections seriously because credibility, once lost, is difficult to rebuild. If you’ve found something wrong, please tell us.

Removal Criteria

Any ranked site is removed from our recommendations immediately if any of the following occur:

• Licence lapse: Their gambling licence expires, is suspended, or is revoked by the regulator.
• Withdrawal failure: A withdrawal exceeds double the stated timeframe in our testing.
• CC acceptance drop: Credit card acceptance rate drops below 90% in our monthly testing.
• Credible complaints: A pattern of credible player complaints indicates systematic issues (withdrawal delays, account closures with funds remaining, etc.).

Since launch, we have removed 4 sites from our rankings:

• Betway Canada (Nov 2024): 11-day withdrawal against 3–5 day stated timeframe
• Casumo Canada (Jan 2025): CC acceptance dropped to 71%
• PlayAmo (Jan 2025): Suspended pending investigation of withdrawal complaints
• One additional site removed in 2023 for licence verification failure (details in archived changelog)

What We Won’t Do

These are hard commitments, not aspirational guidelines:

• We will not list a site with an unverifiable licence, regardless of how much commission they offer. This has been tested — we’ve turned down sites offering significant commissions because their licence didn’t check out.
• We will not suppress negative test results. If a ranked site fails a monthly re-test, we publish the result even if it costs us commission revenue.
• We will not rank a site higher because they asked us to. We receive requests from casino affiliate managers to improve rankings. These requests are declined without discussion.
• We will not hide our affiliate relationship. The disclosure bar at the top of every page, plus our full affiliate disclosure, make the financial relationship clear.
• We will not accept free accounts or special treatment. Every test deposit comes from our own funds. We sign up as regular players. Casinos don’t know they’re being tested.

How Rankings Are Determined

Rankings are determined by the weighted scoring model published in our methodology. The process:

1. Each casino is scored on 5 criteria (CC Acceptance, Payouts, Licensing, RG Tools, Support)
2. Each criterion is scored on a 10-point scale by the relevant team member
3. Scores are weighted per the published model (30/25/20/15/10)
4. Overall score is calculated
5. James Mackay reviews the scores and makes the final ranking decision

In rare cases where two sites have near-identical scores, James makes a judgment call on ranking order. These decisions are documented in the changelog with reasoning.

Our Stance on AI-Generated Content

We do not use AI to generate our reviews, editorial commentary, or research analysis. Our content is written by the four team members identified on our editorial team page. Each person writes within their area of expertise: James writes editorial notes and rankings commentary, Sophie writes game and UX assessments, Raj writes payments and banking content, and Karen writes regulatory and legal content.

We do use technology for data analysis (spreadsheets, statistical tools) and may use AI tools for proofreading or formatting assistance. But the research, analysis, opinions, and recommendations are entirely human-generated. We believe that in a field where readers are making financial decisions, human expertise and accountability are non-negotiable.

Fact-Checking Process

Every page on this site goes through the following before publication:

1. Initial research and writing by the assigned team member
2. Internal review by at least one other team member
3. Fact-check by Karen Webb — every factual claim, statistic, licence number, bank policy, and legal statement is verified against primary sources
4. Final review by James Mackay — editorial consistency, tone, and accuracy
5. Publication with all sources cited and access dates recorded

Monthly re-test data goes through a streamlined version of this process (Steps 3-5) since the methodology is already established.

Editorial standards in effect since March 15, 2019. Current version: February 2025. Maintained by James Mackay, Editor-in-Chief. Questions: [email protected].