How We Research

Why we exist

Most online casino content in Canada falls into one of two camps. Either it's affiliate marketing dressed as journalism — content written to maximize sign-ups, not to inform. Or it's AI-generated bulk content that exists only to capture search traffic, with no original analysis behind it.

We sit in a third camp. CasinoMary is research-driven. Every operator on this site has been evaluated against a structured framework of verifiable data points. We don't claim to have personally placed a bet at every casino we cover — that would be a lie, and lies in a YMYL category like online gambling get people hurt.

What we do claim: every recommendation on this site reflects original research, cross-referenced sources, and a transparent methodology you can verify yourself.

How we select what to cover

We don't cover every casino on the internet. We focus on operators that:

• Accept Canadian players with CAD currency and Canadian payment methods (Interac, debit cards, INSTADEBIT)
• Hold a recognized gambling license — AGCO, Kahnawake Gaming Commission, MGA, UKGC, or Curaçao operators with cleared compliance history
• Have been operating for at least 12 months, filtering out fly-by-night brands
• Have no major unresolved disputes on independent arbitration platforms (AskGamblers, Casino Listings, ThePogg)

If an operator fails any of these gates, they don't get a review on CasinoMary — regardless of what affiliate commission they offer.

What we research

For each casino we cover, we evaluate ten data points across primary sources.

License verification. We check the issuing authority's public registry directly — AGCO, Kahnawake Gaming Commission, MGA, UKGC. We verify license number, issue date, and status. We don't take operator claims at face value.

Payment method coverage. We document every deposit and withdrawal method advertised, cross-checked against operator T&Cs. CAD support, fees, minimum and maximum thresholds, and processing-time claims are logged per method.

Withdrawal speed. We aggregate community-reported withdrawal times from Trustpilot, Reddit, AskGamblers, and dedicated Canadian gambling forums. Where operators publish official processing windows, we note the gap between stated and reported speed.

Bonus value calculation. We mathematically evaluate bonus offers using effective wagering value, not headline numbers. A "200% match up to C$2,000" with 50× wagering on slots only is calculated against actual conversion probability, not marketing prominence.

Terms and conditions analysis. We read the full T&Cs of every operator we list. Restricted countries, restricted games, maximum bet during bonus play, withdrawal caps, dormant account policies — all surfaced in our reviews.

Game library composition. We catalog software providers, game category distribution, and whether RTP is published per game (a transparency signal).

Support coverage. We document support channels, hours of operation, language support, and average response times reported across community sources.

Complaint history. We review the operator's complaint resolution record on independent platforms over the past 24 months.

Ownership and corporate transparency. We trace operator licenses to parent companies, identify shared ownership across brand portfolios, and surface ownership changes that might affect player experience.

Responsible gambling tooling. We verify deposit limits, time limits, loss limits, reality checks, and self-exclusion are offered functionally, not just listed on a page.

How we score

Every casino gets a rating from 0 to 5, weighted across five categories:

• License and trust — license credibility, complaint history, ownership transparency
• Payments — withdrawal speed, fee transparency, payment method coverage
• Bonuses — wagering requirements, restricted games, conversion value, cash-out limits
• Game library — provider diversity, RTP transparency, third-party fairness audits
• Player protection — responsible gambling tooling, KYC fairness, dispute resolution record

The headline rating is a weighted average across all five. We do not round generously.

Where direct testing fits

We are building a network of Canadian players who test operators directly and report back to us. As that network grows, we cite their findings explicitly in reviews — named where they consent, anonymized where they prefer. When we have direct testing data, you will see a "Tested by [name]" annotation on the review.

We are not pretending to have testing data we don't have. If a review on this site doesn't carry a tested-by annotation, that means our analysis is research-based, drawn from the ten data points above. That's not weaker than first-hand testing — it's just different, and we want you to know which is which.

How we make money

We earn a commission when readers sign up to recommended casinos through our affiliate links. This commission never affects our scoring. Operators that fail our research framework are not included on CasinoMary, regardless of what affiliate program they offer.

We do not accept payment to feature, rank, or promote casinos. We do not run display ads. Our affiliate relationships exist only with operators we have already chosen to recommend through independent research.

Updates

We re-research every operator on CasinoMary every 90 days. Licenses change, ownership changes, terms change, payment methods come and go. A score on this site today is not a guarantee that it will hold the same score in three months.

Who runs the research

CasinoMary is operated by Nikolaj Kure, who has spent five years in online iGaming affiliate marketing — including running paid traffic acquisition for casino operators since late 2023. That operator-side perspective informs how CasinoMary evaluates casinos: which licensing red flags matter, how to read between the lines on bonus terms, which payment processing claims to verify against third-party data. Nikolaj developed the CasinoMary research framework and maintains it. When outside contributors participate in research or testing, they are credited by name.