Why Casino Rating is Needed?

We rank casinos so that the players can navigate easier between all the existing online casinos and identify differences between them – which ones are better than the others in terms of particular criteria. On our list – Best Online Casino Rating List 2020 – you will find not only the trustworthy companies that are fun and safe to enjoy their offered games but also the ones that should not be trusted or should be avoided.

Casino Rating

More than 3000 casinos, gambling and poker websites can be found in 2019. Part of them belongs to the global and well-known companies, while the others are managed by relatively small and new businesses and this is why they are usually unreliable or unsafe. You can find a wide variety of game choices in some of them and others can not offer even the most basic games. Some of the websites work smoothly while others not so well as the users would expect. Some of the companies treat players as a bag of money and try to get as much profit from their customers as possible, however, some of them really invest their time into creating long-term relationships and trust. This is why they do everything to guarantee a good customer experience, to make sure that you come back again and again and have a good time.

SmartCasinoGuide project was created in order to provide impartial information about casinos and their games. The decision was inspired by the fact that there is plenty of incorrect material online and on social media. There are websites, where fraudulent companies are presented as reliable and casinos are presented as a good way of making money online.

Our goal is to educate casino players on responsible and safe online gambling, help them identify the best casinos and secure their profit.

As we go further, we will present you the logic of how we rank and evaluate casinos which will help you set your expectations for each company.

How does the ranking work?

SmartCasinoGuide ranking is calculated by taking into account 5 criteria that will be presented below.

Casino Rating Medals

No. 1 Credibility assessment

The company’s credibility is the main criterion that we use to evaluate new casinos and the ones that have been in the market for a long time. We pay extra attention to this criterion. Despite the amount of games a casino can offer, we can not recommend it to players if it’s credibility is doubtful. When identifying the level of credibility 3 points are taken into consideration:

1. Business life cycle

If the company has been existing for a long time, its credibility is naturally higher. We give the maximum points for companies that have 10 or more years of successful work history. New casinos are ranked on our list too, however, a lower rank is given to them.

P.S. We rank a casino company itself and not its website. For example, Unibet casino creates a new online casino website but we evaluate the full company’s life cycle.

2. Company-owned licenses

Licenses indicate which countries have approved the legality of a company. The more reliable the country is, the older the law culture is, the more its citizens are defended, so it is more difficult to establish a casino due to the regulations that are applied. Many players do not consider this until they face some problems. Casinos that have European countries, Maltese or UK licenses are the most reliable. When you play in such casinos, you are defended by the relevant European country. In case you face problems, you can approach the Gaming regulators or the court and they will evaluate if casino acted correctly and did not break any relevant country laws. Meanwhile, if a casino only has the Curacao license (Offshore gaming license), it is only liable to the authorities of the country of Curacao and it is highly unlikely that they will care about the interests of the citizen of another country.

In our rating list you will find information about the casinos that own licenses (and their registration numbers) provided by the different countries and different gaming control authorities.

3. Public feedback about a company

When we evaluate the online casino we go to many websites and forums covering the casino topics, where players post their feedback about different casinos. We have selected forums and web pages that can be trusted. The information there is objective and they can actually help solve players’ problems. In many cases, we also contact casino representatives and ask about negative feedback that was submitted about their casino and what actions were taken to solve their customer issues.

We always test all the casinos that are on our list while being a player. We create accounts, transfer money, play games and get upset if something goes wrong. What is more, we test customer service. For example, the reaction to the real problems or we make up issues in order to test what actions will be taken. This way our team can provide the most objective evaluations.

If you are a fan of online gambling and would like us to review a new casino and rank it by our criteria, please contact us via e-mail partners@smartcasinoguide.com.

No. 2 User Experience

The next step after credibility check is the evaluation of user experience. In order to provide you with the most detailed evaluation we will cover the following questions:

What money withdrawal and deposit methods a casino can offer? How quickly is money transferred to a player’s account? Can you use cryptocurrency? Does the casino accept payments with all main currencies? Is it easy to execute the payment?

Casino User Experience

How does customer service work? Is live chat supported? Do they answer when calling the number that is indicated on their website? Do they have a toll-free line and how does it work? Does a player interact with a real human when using live chat? Does a customer service representative help to solve problems or maybe he does not have any answers to the simplest problems? What languages can be used when contacting customer service?

How does the web page work? Does it load fast? Is it easy to navigate the web page? Can you easily filter and use search functions? Are the casino games categorized and correctly assigned to the categories? Do all games work? Is it easy to find help if you face any problems?

Mobile and desktop versions are evaluated separately.

No. 3 The Variety of Games

Even if a casino is very well trusted, known and convenient, it still practically has no value if it can not offer a wide variety of good games. In order to get high rank from us, a casino must have all the classical games, such as Roulette or BlackJack, several hundreds of slot machines, a video poker as well as different kinds of poker (the more the better) and live casino. The more casino has games’ providers and game variants the higher rating is assigned to the company.

We also take into account whether a casino offers demo versions (where you can play for fun and free of charge) or whether you can try games without registering your bank account. Another important factor is whether multiple windows can be opened at the same time and the games loading time is acceptable.

Casinos also get plus and minus points for the game betting limits. In a perfect case scenario a casino accepts both: very low and high stakes. Such casino can be suitable for a wider audience.
Over the years we have noticed that some casinos apply a very unfair strategy to attract players. They claim to have more games than they actually do or some of them can not be opened (are blocked) if you are in Finland. When we come across such issues, we give a huge disadvantage for these companies.

Casino Online Games

No. 4 Premiums

It is separately evaluated what premiums and bonuses are provided for the players. We check if a casino has a registration bonus, as well as first or second deposit bonuses. Are there any bonuses for the players who like different games, for example, free spins after first deposit is done? Also, it is taken into account if a casino organizes special events, trips or any additional promotions for players.

No. 5 Extra

Additionally, we evaluate how easy it is to reach the website. We check how many languages are available and whether they have any additional products that the players can benefit from. We also take into account other small details that are not mentioned in the four main criteria listed above.

It is very obvious that the creation of a rating is quite a complex and difficult process. A casino has to get high scores in different categories in order to be in our rating, even to get a higher position. It is not sufficient to be the best in only one field.

The rating is changing constantly. Our team is working with casino ratings every day – we check new casinos and the ones that are already on the rating list, search for the new games or find the ones that are not working. Therefore, the casino’s rating is constantly updated. We always track feedback from our visitors and do everything so that their opinions are also incorporated in our rating.

“New Company” tag

Next to some casino companies you will find a note “New Company” instead of a rating number. This indicates that the company has just recently appeared on our website, only first evaluation has been completed. We do not have enough feedback about this casino yet and the testing is not complete, we can not give the final rating.

These casinos will always appear on the top of this rating list so that you could easily find them. We kindly ask you to share your opinion and evaluation after you get a chance to visit them and test it. Feel free to share your feedback and sent it to casino@smartcasinoguide.com.

How to add a new company to the rating?

It might happen that a casino which you enjoy visiting has some interesting games but it is not on our list. We would appreciate if you could inform us about this casino via e-mail casino@smartcasinoguide.com. Thank you!