Approved Casinos Canada: our rating method

Five checks decide whether a casino is approved for a listing on this site. Each check has a pass condition and a fail condition. We apply them in a fixed order. The licence check runs first. A brand that fails any single check is not approved and is not scored on the remaining checks. There is no weighted average and no makeup mark.

1. Active Kahnawake register entry. Pass: the licence number printed in the footer and in the terms matches an active entry in the public register at gamingcommission.ca. The operating entity named on the register is the same entity named in the terms. Fail: no licence number in the footer. A number is printed but does not appear in the register. The register entry is marked lapsed or suspended. The operating entity does not match. This check runs before any other. A brand that cannot be approved against the register is not reviewed further.
2. Published return figures. Pass: paytables on sampled titles show 96%+ on slots from Pragmatic Play and Games Global, formerly Microgaming. Where a full-pay schedule is live, the figure reaches up to 99.9% on video poker. Blackjack pays 3:2, not 6:5. Fail: a majority of sampled slots sit below 96%. Video poker is sold as a premium title on a short-pay table. Blackjack pays 6:5. The paytable figure does not match the studio sheet for that title. RTP is a long-run statistical measure. It is not a forecast for any single session.
3. Cash-out timing. Pass: a withdrawal submitted from a funded test account arrives inside the window printed on the payment page. Funds arrive in the same currency as the deposit. Smooth verification is finished during registration, not added after the cash-out request. Fail: receipt later than the printed window by more than twelve hours. Extra identity steps appear only after the request, with no prior notice. Funds arrive in a different currency. We time the path ourselves. The payment-page paragraph is not treated as proof.
4. In-account player brakes. Pass: a deposit limit, a loss limit, and a session limit can be set from account settings without a support ticket. A time-out and a self-exclusion control sit in the same menu. Self-exclusion applies at the brand where it is set, not at the other brands on our shortlist. Fail: a limit change that requires live chat or email. Self-exclusion missing from settings or reachable only by phone. A cooling-off request that remains inactive after one hour.
5. Live chat and mobile cashier. Pass: live chat opened at an off-peak hour connects to an agent who can answer a cashier or licence question within ten minutes. The deposit step and the withdrawal request both complete on a current mobile browser without a forced desktop view. Fail: chat is closed during posted hours. Chat dumps the editor into a ticket queue. The mobile cashier hides the withdrawal step or returns an error.

Before a casino is approved for the list, an editor opens a funded test account. The licence number is matched to gamingcommission.ca. Paytables on at least three slot titles and one video poker title are read against the studio sheets. A withdrawal is submitted and timed from approval to receipt. Deposit, loss, and session limits are set from inside account settings. Live chat is opened at an off-peak hour. The mobile cashier is loaded on a real handset. Every step is logged before a score is written.

This site earns referral commissions from casinos we list. Commission income does not decide which casinos are approved or where they sit on the page. A casino that fails any of the five checks is not listed, whatever it would pay in referral fees. Content is for adults aged 18+. For self-help resources, see our responsible gaming page.