How We Test and Score UK Casino Sites
Every score on SpinCompass is calculated, not assigned. This page sets out the exact criteria, their weights and the points scale, so that any reader can take our published notes on an operator and rebuild the final number without our help. If you cannot reproduce a score from this page, treat that score as unreliable and tell us so through the correction route described in our Editorial Policy.
18+ only. Gambling should be treated as paid entertainment with a negative expected return, never as income. Free, confidential support is available at BeGambleAware.org and through the National Gambling Helpline.
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1. Where our numbers come from
We use three sources, in this order of authority:
- The UK Gambling Commission public register. This is the only source we accept for whether an operator holds a UK licence, what it is permitted to offer, and under which corporate entity it trades. Operator websites, affiliate networks and press releases are not accepted as evidence of licensing status, in either direction.- Our own account testing. Registration, deposit, verification and withdrawal are performed by our editorial team on real accounts funded with our own money.- The operator's published terms. Bonus terms, wagering requirements, withdrawal limits and payment method exclusions are read from the operator's own terms and conditions, with the version date recorded.
Where the register and the operator disagree, the register wins and we say so in the review.
What we have measured so far
SpinCompass is a new publication and we publish our own counters rather than implying a back catalogue we do not have.
| Work type | Completed to date || Licence register checks | 24 (most recent: 29 July 2026) || Withdrawal timing tests | 3 || Landing page availability checks | 0 |
These counters are updated whenever a test is completed. Any criterion for which we have not yet completed our own measurement is marked Not yet measured in the review and is excluded from the weighted total, with the remaining weights rescaled to 100. We do not fill gaps with estimates.
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2. The seven criteria and their weights
| # | Criterion | Weight || 1 | Withdrawal speed and reliability | 25% || 2 | Bonus terms and wagering fairness | 20% || 3 | Licensing, safer gambling and account fairness | 15% || 4 | Verification and deposit friction | 12% || 5 | Payments and limits | 10% || 6 | Game library and provider transparency | 10% || 7 | Support quality | 8% || | Total | 100% |
Each criterion is scored 0–10. The final Compass Score out of 10 is the weighted mean, rounded to one decimal place:
Compass Score = Σ (criterion score × weight) ÷ 100
Star displays elsewhere on the site are a direct conversion: 10.0 = 5 stars, 8.0 = 4 stars, and so on. There is no separate star judgement.
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3. Criterion definitions and the points scale
3.1 Withdrawal speed and reliability: 25%
Protocol. We open a standard account with no bonus attached, deposit £50 by debit card, place low-volatility wagers until the deposit has been turned over once, then submit three separate withdrawal requests across the testing window: one on a weekday morning, one on a Friday evening, one on a Sunday. Each request is between £20 and £150. We record the timestamp of the request, the timestamp of operator approval, and the timestamp at which funds are confirmed received. The headline figure is the median request-to-receipt time across the three requests.
Scale.
- 10: median under 3 hours, all three requests paid, no additional documents demanded after verification was already complete.- 8: median under 12 hours, all three paid.- 6: median under 24 hours, or under 12 hours with one request delayed by a documented weekend banking cycle.- 4: median 24–72 hours, or one request requiring chase-up before payment.- 2: median over 72 hours, or repeated document requests that were not disclosed at signup, or a withdrawal reversed to the balance without the player asking.- 0: a request unpaid at 14 days with no substantive explanation.
A published withdrawal figure always states how many requests it is based on. Where we have not yet run the test, the criterion reads Not yet measured and its 25% is redistributed.
3.2 Bonus terms and wagering fairness: 20%
Protocol. We read the full bonus terms, record the version date, and check them against the offer as advertised on the landing page. We test whether stated exclusions (game weighting, max bet while bonus is active, excluded payment methods) match behaviour in the account.
Scale.
- 10: no wagering requirement on winnings, or wagering of 10× or less on the bonus only; no maximum win cap; no payment method excluded from the offer; expiry of 30 days or more.- 8: wagering 11×–25× on bonus only, win cap of £500 or more or none, expiry 14 days or more.- 6: wagering 26×–40× on bonus only, or up to 15× on deposit + bonus.- 4: wagering 41×–65×, or a win cap below £250, or a maximum bet rule under £3 that voids winnings without an in-account warning.- 2: wagering above 65×, or terms that contradict the advertised headline, or a clause allowing the operator to void winnings at its discretion without defined grounds.- 0: bonus terms not published in full before deposit.
We never describe an offer as "free" or "risk-free". Where a bonus exists, we state the wagering requirement in the same sentence as the bonus amount.
3.3 Licensing, safer gambling and account fairness: 15%
Protocol. We check the operator against the UKGC register and record the licence status exactly as it appears there. We then check that the safer gambling toolkit is present and reachable: deposit limits, loss limits, session reminders, time-out, self-exclusion, and GAMSTOP participation for UK-licensed operators.
Scale.
- 10: UKGC licensed; deposit, loss and session limits all settable before first deposit and reduceable with immediate effect; GAMSTOP integrated; self-exclusion reachable in three clicks or fewer.- 8: UKGC licensed, full toolkit present but limits require support contact to reduce.- 6: licensed by another recognised regulator, with a full safer gambling toolkit, and the review states plainly which jurisdiction that is.- 4: offshore licensing (for example Curaçao or Anjouan) with a partial toolkit; the review names the actual jurisdiction and does not compare it to UK licensing.- 2: licensing status unclear from any register; the review says nothing about licensing at all rather than guessing.- 0: see disqualifiers below.
We never state or imply that an operator is UK licensed unless it appears in the UKGC register, and we never remove a licence an operator genuinely holds. We do not display regulator logos.
3.4 Verification and deposit friction: 12%
Protocol. We time registration from first form field to a funded balance. We record which documents are requested, at what stage, and how long approval takes. We note the minimum deposit and whether it differs from the amount required to qualify for the advertised offer.
Scale.
- 10: account verified electronically within 15 minutes, no documents needed, minimum deposit £10 or less, and the offer qualifies at the minimum deposit.- 8: verified within 2 hours, or one document required and approved same day.- 6: verified within 24 hours.- 4: verification only triggered at withdrawal, adding delay to the first payout.- 2: more than 72 hours to verify, or documents demanded repeatedly in the same format.- 0: funds accepted but withdrawal blocked pending verification that cannot be completed through any documented route.
3.5 Payments and limits: 10%
Protocol. We list supported deposit and withdrawal methods in GBP and confirm which are actually selectable in a UK-registered account. Credit cards have been prohibited for gambling in Great Britain since April 2020; any site offering one to a UK account is treated under disqualifiers.
Scale.
- 10: debit card, PayPal and open banking (for example Trustly) all available for both deposit and withdrawal; withdrawal minimum £10 or less; monthly withdrawal cap £10,000 or higher or none; no withdrawal fees.- 8: at least two of the three methods available both ways; cap £5,000+ per month.- 6: debit card only for withdrawal; cap £2,000–£5,000 per month.- 4: withdrawal cap below £2,000 per month, or a fee on the first withdrawal of the month.- 2: withdrawal method restricted to one option that differs from the deposit method without a stated anti-money-laundering reason.- 0: withdrawal fees exceeding 3% of the amount, or caps that would take more than 12 months to release a mid-sized win.
3.6 Game library and provider transparency: 10%
Protocol. We count live titles by category (slots, live dealer, bingo), check that studio names are shown on each game tile, and check whether RTP is disclosed in-game or in a help file. Where a title runs at multiple RTP configurations, we record which one the operator has deployed.
Scale.
- 10: 1,500+ titles, studio named on every tile, RTP visible before play, demo mode available to logged-in UK players where permitted.- 8: 800+ titles, RTP findable in two clicks.- 6: 400+ titles, RTP disclosed only in help documentation.- 4: under 400 titles, or RTP not disclosed anywhere.- 2: unnamed or white-label studios making up the majority of the library.- 0: games that cannot be identified to any studio.
3.7 Support quality: 8%
Protocol. We submit three questions from a funded account: one factual (withdrawal timescales), one about bonus terms, one about setting a deposit limit. We record response time and whether the answer was correct against the operator's own published terms.
Scale.
- 10: live chat with a human within 2 minutes, all three answers correct, safer gambling question answered without an upsell.- 8: under 10 minutes, all answers correct.- 6: under 1 hour, or one answer requiring escalation.- 4: email only, reply within 24 hours.- 2: over 24 hours, or an answer that contradicts the published terms.- 0: no reachable support channel from inside a funded account, or a safer gambling request met with a retention offer.
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4. Worked example of the calculation
An operator scoring 8 on withdrawals, 6 on bonus terms, 10 on licensing and safer gambling, 8 on verification, 8 on payments, 8 on library and 6 on support:
(8×25) + (6×20) + (10×15) + (8×12) + (8×10) + (8×10) + (6×8) = 200 + 120 + 150 + 96 + 80 + 80 + 48 = 774
774 ÷ 100 = 7.74 → Compass Score 7.7 / 10 (3.9 stars)
If withdrawals were still unmeasured, the remaining six weights (75 in total) are rescaled by ×1.3333 and the score is calculated from those alone, with the review carrying a visible Withdrawal test pending flag.
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5. Instant disqualifiers
An operator is removed from all rankings and lists regardless of any other score if:
- it accepts a credit card from a Great Britain account;- it claims a UK Gambling Commission licence that does not appear in the register;- it markets in a way that breaches CAP/BCAP rules on appeal to under-18s, or presents gambling as a solution to financial problems;- it fails to honour a self-exclusion or blocks a documented self-exclusion request;- it leaves one of our own withdrawal requests unpaid at 14 days without a substantive, documented reason;- it changes bonus terms retroactively on an active bonus;- it makes the account closure route unreachable from inside the account.
Disqualification is recorded on the review page with the date and the reason. Reinstatement requires a fresh full test and is noted publicly.
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6. Review cycle
- Licence register status: rechecked every 90 days, and immediately on any reader report of a discrepancy.- Bonus terms: rechecked every 60 days, since offers and wagering requirements change without notice.- Withdrawal test: repeated every 6 months, or sooner if we receive consistent reports of delays.- Full re-score: annually, or immediately after a change of operating licensee, platform or ownership.
Every review shows the date of its last check and the date of its last full re-score. A review not rechecked within its cycle is marked stale and drops out of ranked lists until it is refreshed.
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7. What weights do not do
Weights are not adjusted for individual operators, and commercial arrangements do not enter the formula at any point. The weights on this page are the weights applied to every operator we cover. If we change them, the change is dated and the affected scores are recalculated across the site, not quietly left in place.
SpinCompass earns commission from some of the operators listed on this site. That relationship is set out in full in our Editorial Policy and it does not appear in the arithmetic above.
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