Method, sources and dates
How we check casinos: terms, registers and two money tests
The order of the ranking comes from five criteria, every one of which can be checked in an operator's terms and in a licence register. Here is who reads what and when, and how two tests with real money fill in the picture.
How we check casinos fits into three steps: we read the operator's own documents, we look the licence up in the register of the authority that issued it, and we write a clause number and a date beside every figure. The order grows out of what an operator promises in its own terms and what it binds itself to — the size of a bonus and the number of games move nothing.
The work is done by the desk, and we answer for the result together. Twice we have gone beyond reading and put our own money in play; both tests are written out below exactly as they went.
What the desk reads
For every operator we gather four kinds of source:
- The terms and conditions — above all the clauses on identity checks, withdrawals, bonuses and account closure. Those are what decide what happens to your money after a win.
- Campaign pages — the bonus percentage, the ceiling and the conditions as printed on the day we read them.
- Licence registers — the Curaçao Gaming Authority portal at cert.cga.cw and the Anjouan public licence register at anjouangaming.com.
- Estonian sources — the tax and customs authority's public lists, read on 8 September 2026.
Reviews, forums and the tables of other comparison sites do not qualify as sources. If a figure has no clause and no register entry behind it, that figure is not on this site.
| Operator | Criteria | Licence | Identity check | Document threshold | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Bitcasino.io | 4/5 | Curaçao · register: active | On an eventcl. 3.13, 6.6 | €2,500 (or the same value in crypto)cl. 6.6 | Open the casinoCard |
2 Rocketpot | 4/5 | Curaçao · portal: not valid | At a withdrawalcl. 11.4, 12.4 | 2,000–2,500 USD (two clauses)cl. 11.4, 12.4 | Open the casinoCard |
3 Wild Fortune | 4/5 | Anjouan · valid to 29 September 2026 | On an eventcl. 2.7, 11.2 | no amount | Open the casinoCard |
6 Shuffle.com | 3/5 | Curaçao · register: active | On an eventcl. 5.2 | no amount | Open the casinoCard |
7 Bitsler | 2/5 | Curaçao · register: active | On an eventcl. 8.22, 4.3 | no amount | Open the casinoCard |
8 Thunderpick | 2/5 | Curaçao · register: active | Moment not namedcl. 21.1 | no amount | Open the casinoCard |
How we check casinos: the five criteria
On this site the word “best” means one thing: the operator has written down more of what a player needs before a first withdrawal. There are five criteria.
- An identity clause exists. The terms carry a separate clause saying the operator may ask for documents — Vave's clause 8.7, for example.
- The clause says when the check begins. At Vave, before a withdrawal; Wild Fortune's clause 2.7 requires verification before playing in BTC at all, and clause 11.2 before every withdrawal.
- The clause carries an amount. Rocketpot's clause 11.4 names $2,500 or 0.05 BTC, while clause 12.4 of the same document names $2,000; Bitcasino.io's clause 6.6 names €2,500. Where one document carries two figures, we show both.
- Documents have a deadline. Vave gives 14 days under clause 8.7, Rocketpot 30 calendar days under clause 12.2 and Metaspins 30 days under clause 9.10.
- The licence is found in the issuer's register for the operator's own domain. A number printed in a footer is not enough on its own; what counts is the entry the register shows for that particular domain.
Bonus size, the number of games and the number of coins stay out of the score. They appear on an operator's card, because readers want to know them, but they do not change the order.
The ranking has 30 rows. The first 12 are ordered by points under the five criteria; rows 13 to 30 are the remaining casinos in the list, and for them we publish only the data we hold. The whole list with the cards is on the page with all 30 operators as cards.
Reading dates
Terms are often changed without notice, which is why every fact carries the day we read it. Some examples of how the dates fall:
- Vave: section 8 of the terms on 25 August 2026, the campaign page on 24 August 2026, the CGA portal on 12 September 2026.
- Rocketpot, Bitcasino.io, Rainbet, Bitsler, Wolfbet, Metaspins and Wild Fortune: terms on 2 September 2026.
- The Anjouan register on Wild Fortune's entry: 2 September 2026.
- The CGA portal on Rocketpot's number: 12 and 13 September 2026.
- The tax and customs authority's public lists: 8 September 2026.
If an operator changes a clause after our date, its new text applies. The date shows which version an assessment was made from, and gives you the means to check the same clause yourself.
How we check casinos in a register
The Curaçao portal searches by domain and by company name. A certificate carries the holder, the number, the status and the domains it covers. For Vave, on 12 September 2026, the portal showed Latcas B.V.'s licence OGL/2024/1676/0905, active since 19 May 2025, and that certificate carried one domain: vavegame.com. The address vave.com was not there.
The Anjouan register searches by licence number and shows, beside an entry, a list of domains and the dates of validity. The licence ALSI-202509073-FI2 of Wild Fortune's operator Metlait SRL runs, by the register, to 29 September 2026.
Registers also bring out discrepancies that a site's footer does not show:
- Rocketpot's terms print the number 1668/JAZ; the CGA portal answered “not valid” for it on 12 and 13 September 2026.
- Metaspins' terms carry an Anjouan number, while the Curaçao register shows Metaspins N.V. — two different authorities, which the documents do not tie together.
- Wild.io's certificate carries Nonce Gaming B.V., while its terms name Stack Gaming Ltd as the contracting party.
Every ranked operator's licence status, with its date, is on the page of register entries.
Two money tests
Twice the desk has used its own money. There are no other tests — everything else on this site has been read, not played.
Vave, 28 August 2026. The desk deposited and withdrew. The withdrawals went through without a single identity check until their total reached roughly 5,000 USDT. This is one account over one period — an observation, not a rule: clause 8.7 of the terms allows Vave to verify identity before any withdrawal.
TrustDice, May 2026. Over several weeks the desk moved USDT onto the account. The first withdrawals left without documents; once the amount taken out passed roughly 5,000 USD in total, the next payment stopped in the state “payment under review”. Then came a letter from the compliance department with a Veriff link. A driving licence would not do, a passport was accepted on the fifth attempt, and some time later TrustDice asked by email for documents a second time.
Both tests show the same thing: the moment documents are asked for depends on the operator's clause, not on how smoothly the first withdrawals went. Every operator's identity clause is written out on the page of identity clauses operator by operator.
Vave: the one casino this site links out to
Vave is the casino the links on this site lead to. It is not among the rows of the ranking and takes no place in it, and its card stands apart from the scored twelve.
How we check casinos does not depend on where a link leads: no place in the ranking and no point in the score comes from anywhere but the five criteria. Vave's data is published under exactly the same rules as everyone else's: clause 8.7 (identity before a withdrawal, 14 days for documents), clause 8.11 (before a withdrawal the deposit has to be wagered: three times in casino and live games, once in sports) and clause 8.8 (no period cap; a win from 50,000 USDT upwards may in exceptional cases arrive in equal instalments). We also show that the CGA certificate carries vavegame.com and not vave.com.
The campaign-page figures were read on 24 August 2026: 150% on the first deposit up to 1.5 BTC + 100 free spins, and 100% / 50% / 25% on the second, third and fourth deposits. No wagering multiplier was printed on that page. What those clauses mean for a withdrawal is on the page about the clauses that hold a payout up.
What we do not publish
- payout times or promises about speed — those depend on the operator's review, on the network and on the caps;
- instructions for getting around blocks, location checks or identity checks;
- figures with no clause number and no reading date;
- other sites' ratings and stars.
Nor do we give advice about your own money. The costs the cashier itself takes out of a payout are set out on the cashier costs page. The complaint routes, licence by licence, are on the page about where to turn when a dispute arises. The words that recur in the method — KYC, threshold, register entry — are explained in the glossary.