The rules our team holds itself to: how we research, test and rate online casinos, how we stay independent of the operators who pay us, and how we fix it fast when we get something wrong.
Casino content is what Google calls YMYL — Your Money or Your Life. It shapes decisions about real money, so it has to clear a higher bar than an ordinary review. We publish these guidelines on purpose: they’re the standard you get to hold us to. Every claim is sourced, every casino is tested first-hand, and no commercial deal has ever changed a verdict. Most affiliate sites give every casino 8/10 or above — we don’t, and this page explains why we can’t.
Our editorial promise
Every casino gets a TrustScore out of 10, built the same way each time from five weighted criteria. We publish the weights because a rating you can’t audit is just an advert. The two heaviest — Licensing and Payments — carry more than half the score between them, because being able to trust an operator and actually get paid matters more than the size of a welcome offer.
Two scores, never blended
Because our content influences how readers spend money, accuracy isn’t negotiable. Before a word is written, a topic goes through research and source-gathering; once drafted, it’s checked against the operator’s live site and cross-referenced before it’s published. We demand depth, originality and detail — every page should earn its place, and a line that doesn’t add information gets cut.
Regulator registers, operator T&Cs, government resources and established review bodies. No claim goes live unless at least one credible source backs it — and we cross-reference where we can.
Recommending a casino takes more than one opinion. Multiple reviewers run our published 27-step process across the five weighted criteria above — and we show exactly how much each one counts.
A dedicated team checks every promotion against what the operator actually publishes and tests the claim flow. We name bad terms plainly — “40x wagering is above average for this type of offer.” Many competitors post a bonus without ever trying it. We don’t.
Every review carries a real, named author with a bio and a last-updated date — no anonymous content writers. An editor checks that bonus terms match the source and that each statement holds up.
Testing is the backbone of every recommendation. We don’t score a casino from its marketing — we open a real account and walk the full player journey, then let what actually happened set the rating. If a platform lags, misleads or stalls at any stage, it shows up in the score.
We register and complete KYC, noting how clear and quick the process really is.
We deposit real funds, activate offers including no-deposit bonuses, and check the terms against what’s advertised.
We play across slots, tables and live dealer to judge the library, performance and overall feel.
We request a real withdrawal and contact live chat with a genuine question — then record how long each one actually took.
BrilliantCasinos earns revenue through affiliate partnerships, and we’re upfront about it. What that money buys is visibility on the site — never a verdict. Casino brands cannot pay for positive coverage or move their position in our rankings, and our criteria are public, percentages included, so anyone can see how a score is built. User trust is worth more to us than any short-term commission.
To keep ratings honest, we hold a strict separation between our editorial and commercial teams. The people who test and score casinos are not the people who negotiate deals.
Keeping information current is a standard, not an afterthought. Our team works to a review schedule that re-checks bonus pages, payment methods and legal policies regularly — and we run extra updates whenever a casino changes its rules, redesigns its platform, or a reader flags something. Every review shows a last-updated date so you can see when it was last verified.
Spotted a mistake?
Our content should be clear and respectful to readers from every background. Our editorial process includes a check for inclusive language, cultural sensitivity and regional relevance, and we encourage writers to avoid assumptions that might mislead or alienate readers in different markets. We treat inclusive language and fair practice as a baseline, not an optional extra.
No. Operators can pay for visibility, but never for a higher TrustScore, a better ranking or positive coverage. Editorial and commercial teams are kept separate, and every recommendation is based on verified testing.
We open a real account, complete KYC, deposit real money, activate bonuses, play across game types, request a withdrawal and contact support — then score what actually happened, not what’s advertised.
Because the gap between our TrustScore and the Player Rating is information in itself. Blending them into one number would hide exactly the tension a reader needs to see.
Bonus pages, payment methods and legal policies are re-checked on a schedule, with extra updates triggered by operator changes or reader feedback. Each review carries a last-updated date.
Our full method — the five weighted criteria and the 27 checks beneath them — is published on How We Rate.
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