ABOUT US
How we Rate Casinos
Once casinos have met the aforementioned criteria, our team of highly experienced igaming professionals conduct a thorough and detailed investigation of each casino looking at the following factors.
- Customer Support
- Player and Bonus Terms and Conditions
- Games Selection
- Withdrawal Times
- KYC Processing Times
- User Experience
Casinos are then ranked based on how highly they score in each area. Given that we only list very strong casinos, it can often be difficult to determine which casinos have the edge and this can mean that User Experience becomes a very defining factor for our scoring decisions.
What you can be certain of is that Casino Canary will never recommend to our users and casino that we do not deem ourselves to be fair, safe, secure and enjoyable to use.
Need to Know
First and fore most is extremely important to understand that when you claim a casino welcome bonus, the likelihood is that these bonus funds will come with strict wagering requirements.
For example, if you were to claim a welcome bonus of 100% up to £100 and made an initial deposit of £100. Your starting balance would be £200. The first £100 you spend at the casino will be the raw funds you deposited and anything you win while wagering those funds will be entirely withdrawal (even though this may require you to cancel the welcome bonus). However if you lose that initial £100 and your balance dips below £100 then you will begin wagering with bonus funds. This is where wagering requirements come in to play. Here in the UK wagering requirements tend to sit around 35x to 40x times the money. Essentially this just means that you have to wager your bonus funds 35 times in order to make it withdraw-able. For example, if you have a bonus of £100 then you will have to wager £3,500 to make that bonus money available for withdrawal. This may seem unachievable but of course it is something many of us have achieved on several occasions.
The bright side is that here in the UK all casino bonuses are legally required to be non-sticky. This means that your bonus funds can never be connected to your real money funds. So there is never any down side to taking a welcome bonus. If you hit a win with your initial deposited money then it is immediately withdrawal. Your balance will only ever become restricted if you drop in to your bonus funds. Others have named this style of bonus a parachute bonus or a safety net bonus. Here we prefer to just call it non sticky.
In many EU countries bonuses are often sticky and require players to have a restricted balance that requires wagering from the moment they deposit. So here in the UK we are blessed to have the UKGC ensuring that players are given fair incentives to play with new casinos rather than incentives that won’t necessarily help the enjoyment of their play like on the continent.
Avoid Extravagant High Paying Bonuses
Unfortunately, here in the UK many players may be temped by very high paying match bonuses. These are often marketed by casinos not recognised by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC). It’s very easy to spot these offers as they tend to offer outrageously high match bonuses such as 400% up to £2,000 or similar. A very easy way to check if a casino is licensed by the UKGC is to scroll to the very bottom of the home page. If the casino is UKGC licensed then it will display a link to it’s licensee page on the UKGC’s website.
Sadly, these offers tend to target problem gamblers who are unable to play at UKGC casinos after having rightly self excluded themselves from many brands and white labels. If you fit in to this category, please don’t be temped by these offers. Instead, check out some of the helpful resources below.
- GamCare – Provides free, confidential information and support
- Gamstop – Offers a way to easily self exclude from the bulk of UK gambling operators
- Gamblers Anonymous – A confidential environment to talk to people who can help
If you’re not a problem gambler yet still find yourself temped by these over the top offers then simply recognise that the only way to play safe is to play at a UKGC licensed casino.
UK CASINOS
BONUS BUYS
Before signing up with any online casino operator, it the responsibility of the player to ensure that they meet with any and all relevant legal requirements (including age restrictions) concerned with online gambling in their jurisdiction. scratchcardjoe.com does not accept liability for any inaccuracies or errors included in these advertisements or in any other information concerning third-party sites.
