Best Online Casino Review Sites Available in Canada
Critically acclaimed and widely considered by music critics to be his best album, Elvis Costello’s razor sharp second album, This Year’s Model features the song Watching the Detectives. We are very used to ‘watching the detectives’ as police and crime drama is one of the most popular forms of TV drama.
The 2007 Cillian Murphy and Lucy Liu movie by the same name takes the protagonist’s deep obsession with detective films and film noir to another level. What starts out as vicarious interest sees Murphy’s character getting involved in a series of real-world pranks and petty (and less than petty) crimes.
However, the idea of watching those who do the watching, is something that many of us do in our own lives. Review companies like Trustpilot, Google and TripAdvisor allow us to rate, review and check out the inside story on almost everything. However, review sites are much more than just peer-to-peer signposting and there is a massive industry in the online casino review site vertical alone.
An issue of trust
So how are iGamers supposed to know which ones to trust and which ones to steer clear of? Who is around to ‘review the reviewers’, and work out which ones are acting in the players interests and which are just paid for mouth pieces or industry funded influencers? Independent and long-established are key watchwords, but it can still be difficult to detect the genuine from the sycophantic. Canadian players not only have a huge choice of platforms to play on but can also find themselves bamboozled with advice from review and affiliate sites.
Each review site seems to go about things differently or being looking for its unique angle of the market. Some of them are nothing more than databases of everything available, others focus on bonuses and some are part-review and part-gaming site. So, it does really depend on what you want, but if you are looking for clear, expert advice, you need to know where to look.
A quick internet search will come up with names like:
- Casino.ca,
- Casino.org
- Casinofreak.com
- Gambling.com
- OddsChecker
- Askgamblers.com
Broad category with major differences
At first glance, they could all appear to be promoting similar offerings, but you only have to scratch a little deeper to realise that each has its own distinctive slant. In addition, sites like BetVictor also claim to offer reviews, but as they are tied to a gambling platform, it is hard to believe that their advice is going to be impartial.
When you are looking for a casino online in Canada, we found some of the sites are definitely superior to others. After having a thorough look, we concluded that Casino.ca stands out stands out due to its thorough vetting process, checks for licensing from top regulators detailed operator reviews, and commitment to security and fairness. We were also impressed with Casino.org and here are our thoughts on what we were impressed with.
Casino.ca
The premise (and promise) of this site is to help players find the best real money online casino in Canada. Their expert review team have over 100 years of combined experience and they have reviewed over 120 regulated casinos. They offer readers highly curated, easy to read and understand, up-to-date listings.
As well as general reviews they have a large feature on free games, bonus offers and tournaments. It is easy to dip in, find what you want and get on with playing (or trialling potential game). The tournaments are an exclusive, fun feature with a real social aspect.
Casino.ca launch new tournaments every seven days and players get live leaderboard access so that they can track updates and progress in real time. While the tournaments are social in nature, there are real cash prizes to be won. At the end of the tournament the ‘leaderboard is locked’, and the site notifies their prize winners by email.
- Tournaments can be:
- Mission-based
- Total win
- Multiplier
- Bonus Buy.
The concept adds a whole new dimension to ‘just another review site’ and builds a relationship between the site and its users.
While that is a fun feature, everything is underpinned with their solid approach of taking the guess work out of choosing a casino. They use a thorough evaluation process and rate every Canadian online casino using the same weighting. The features are weighted as follows:
- 20% security and fairness
- 15% bonuses and promotions
- 15% games and software
- 10% localisation
- 10% mobile friendliness
- 15% customer service
- 15% banking options and payout speed
We were impressed that they were so concerned with security and fairness. After all, a casino may offer great bonuses and thousands of games, but if it does not meet strict security standards, then it will not make their lists. They verify that casinos hold licences from reputable authorities like the Malta Gaming Authority and Kahnawake Gaming Commission because these regulatory bodies enforce fairness and player protection policies. In addition, they check for SSL encryption technology to guarantee customers personal and financial data remain protected.
Their hands on approach were refreshing, as were their provincial updates. Generally felt like a solid ‘across Canada’ experience.
Casino.org
Casino.org is a global organization (as its name implies) with a detailed Canada-specific website. The brand and philosophy have been around since 1995, and they report of have ranked over 180 real-money casinos across 10 Canadian provinces. Their USP is a very in-depth, 25-step casino review process which takes a hands-on, data-driven approach to:
- Security
- Welcome bonuses
- Regular promotions
- Game variety from reputable providers
- Mobile experience
- Payment options
- Customer support
Based on all that data, they give a casino an overall rating. Their top list is continuously updated as they regularly recheck sites. They say that they are the world’s leading independent online gaming authority, and who are we to argue with them?
The rest of the best
- CasinoFreak offers igamers a collection of tools designed to make gambling more straightforward and ‘a little more fun. They feature lottery number generators, game simulators and expert tips but seem less focussed on safety.
- Gambling.com combines a structured review methodology with real user feedback to deliver fully transparent, unbiased evaluations. They have thousands of members share their experiences to help shape their advice, but it is unclear how much they engage themselves with the evaluation process.
- Oddschecker does ‘what it says on the label’ and checks out all the available odds.
- Askgamblers.com is an affiliate website whose stated purpose is to provide, current, objective and accurate information to guide its users to a safer gaming experience, available in English, German, Spanish and Portuguese.
As you can see, while there are similarities, they are far from all the same.
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