Every casino on BonusMadness gets a score out of 10. The score is not a feeling. It comes from a fixed formula applied to facts we research for each casino, and this page shows the whole formula, so you can check any score yourself.
What we research
Research is done per country. BonusMadness has a Canada section and sections for Finland, Ireland and Austria, plus an international section, and an offer can differ from one country to the next. Before we list casinos for a country, we build a research pack for it from local sources: the gambling law and who enforces it, the minimum age, how winnings are taxed, the official help lines and the payment methods players there use.
For every casino we then read the operator’s own pages for that country first: the bonus terms, the general terms, the banking and payments pages, and the licence details in the footer. We cross-check those facts against the regulator’s public records where one exists, and against review sites and guides from the same country. Every fact in our database carries its source and the date we checked it, and a confidence level: high when the operator’s own page states it, lower when only third-party sources do or when sources disagree.
Where sources conflict, we record every version, pick the one from the operator’s own page for that country when there is one, and say so in the review. Where a fact can’t be found, we leave it blank rather than guess.
What we do not do
We do not open accounts, make deposits, play or request withdrawals at the casinos we review. Payout times on this site are the times casinos publish or, where a casino publishes none, the times independent sources report. They are never timings from our own transactions. When a review says a withdrawal takes up to 24 hours, that is the casino’s stated time, and your own experience can differ, especially on a first withdrawal while ID checks run.
The score, step by step
The overall score is the plain average of five sub-scores, each out of 10, rounded to one decimal. All five count equally. The formula is the same in every country. Amounts below are in Canadian dollars because the worked example is a Canada offer; for an offer in euros, read €1 and €100 in place of C$1 and C$100.
| Sub-score | What it measures | How it is calculated |
|---|---|---|
| Bonus value | How heavy the welcome bonus playthrough really is | Total bets needed per C$1 of bonus on a C$100 deposit (the effective multiple), then 10 minus (effective multiple minus 20) divided by 6, kept between 4 and 9.5. A bonus with no published wagering scores 7. |
| Payout speed | The fastest withdrawal time the casino publishes | 1 hour or less: 9.5. Up to 12 hours: 9. Up to 24 hours: 8.5. Up to 48 hours: 7.5. Longer: 6.5. Not published: 7. |
| Game library | Size of the game catalogue | 5,000+ games: 9.3. 3,000+: 8.8. 1,500+: 8.2. Fewer: 7.5. Not published: 7.5. |
| Support | Live chat availability | 24/7 live chat: 9. Live chat with set hours: 7.5. No live chat: 6.5. |
| Licence and safety | The regulator behind the licence | Malta Gaming Authority: 9.3. Kahnawake Gaming Commission, Estonia or the Isle of Man: 9. Curaçao, Anjouan, Tobique or Costa Rica: 7.8. Other: 6.5. |
The bonus formula rewards low playthrough, and it counts what the multiple applies to. Take a 100% match on a C$100 deposit. At 35x the bonus you bet C$3,500 for C$100 of bonus: an effective multiple of 35, which scores 7.5. At 35x the deposit plus the bonus you bet C$7,000 for the same C$100: an effective multiple of 70, which scores the floor of 4. Wagering on the deposit only, as at LeoVegas, works the other way: 25x on a C$100 deposit is C$2,500 for C$100 of bonus, so it scores 9.2. For a multi-deposit package the first deposit is scored, and for an offer with a fixed turnover the turnover itself is divided by the bonus. Free-spin offers with wagering on winnings use the multiple as published, because the cash value of the spins isn’t fixed. Every review also shows the total bets in its bonus maths section.
Sportsbooks
Sportsbooks get their own score, on the same principle: five equal sub-scores out of 10, averaged and rounded to one decimal. The casino score and the sportsbook score of a brand that runs both are separate, because a strong casino can sit next to a thin sportsbook.
| Sub-score | What it measures | How it is calculated |
|---|---|---|
| Bonus terms | How heavy the sports welcome bonus rollover really is | Total bets needed per C$1 of bonus on a C$100 deposit, then 10 minus (that multiple minus 3) divided by 1.5, kept between 4 and 9.5. Minimum odds of 2.00 or more take off half a point. Free bets and boosts with no rollover score 9.5. No published rollover: 7. |
| Sports and markets | Breadth of the sportsbook | 40+ sports: 9.3. 30+: 9. 20+: 8.2. Fewer: 7.5. Not published: 7.5. |
| Features | The tools that change how you bet | 6, plus 0.7 each for live betting, cash out, bet builder, live streaming and esports, capped at 9.5. |
| Payout speed | The fastest withdrawal time published | Same scale as for casinos. |
| Licence and safety | The regulator behind the licence | Same scale as for casinos. |
As with casinos, every input is a published fact with a check date, and commission never changes a score.
A worked example
Here is the score for Jackpot City, one of the casinos in our Canada section:
| Sub-score | Fact | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Bonus value | 35x wagering on the bonus: C$3,500 of bets for a C$100 bonus, effective multiple 35 | 10 - (35 - 20) / 6 = 7.5 |
| Payout speed | Fastest published withdrawal: 24 hours | 8.5 |
| Game library | About 1,700 games | 8.2 |
| Support | 24/7 live chat | 9.0 |
| Licence and safety | Kahnawake Gaming Commission | 9.0 |
| Overall | Average of the five | (7.5 + 8.5 + 8.2 + 9.0 + 9.0) / 5 = 8.4 |
You’ll find the same five bars on every casino review, next to the facts behind them, starting with the Jackpot City review.
The regulators behind the casinos we list
Regulators named in each casino's footer and terms. Some hold more than one.
- Curaçao16
- Malta (MGA)7
- Estonia4
- UK Gambling Commission4
- Gibraltar4
- Anjouan3
- Kahnawake3
- Isle of Man2
- Tobique1
Why the licence scores differ
A licence is only as strong as the regulator behind it. The Malta Gaming Authority and the Kahnawake Gaming Commission publish their licence holders, set technical standards and run a complaint route for players. Kahnawake, based in the Mohawk Territory near Montreal, requires operators to settle disputes within 45 days and accepts unresolved complaints from players within six months. Curaçao reformed its licensing system and now publishes a register of licence holders and applicants. Anjouan’s licensing regime was publicly disputed by the Comoros central bank in October 2026.
Malta and Estonia are in the European Economic Area. The Isle of Man, Kahnawake, Curaçao, Anjouan and Tobique are not, which matters in Finland, where it decides whether winnings are taxed. The score itself does not change by country.
None of these licences is a local licence for the countries we cover. In Canada, Ontario and Alberta run their own regulated markets, and the casinos in our Canada section serve players in the rest of the country. Finland and Austria run state monopolies, and Ireland does not yet license online casinos, so no casino we list is licensed in Finland, Austria or Ireland. Each review states what the regulator’s own register shows for that casino, and links to it. You can check Kahnawake licence holders yourself on the Commission’s permit-holder list.
What the score does not cover
The score is a starting point, not a verdict on its own. It doesn’t capture everything that matters in a bonus: the cashout cap, the max bet, the game weighting, the claim window or excluded payment methods. Those are in every review’s terms section and in the bonus maths, which shows the total bets needed to clear each offer. Two casinos with the same score can suit very different players, which is why every review ends with who it suits and who it doesn’t. Our wagering calculator runs the same maths on any offer you find.
How scores are kept current
Every casino and offer carries the date it was last checked, shown on the card and in the review. When a casino changes its terms, payout times or licence, we update the facts and the score recalculates from the same formula. An offer past its end date drops off the site automatically.
Commercial relationships
BonusMadness earns commission when readers sign up at some of the casinos we list. That can affect which casinos we feature and where they appear on the home page. It never changes a score: scores come only from the formula above, applied to researched facts, and our listing pages sort by score by default. The full details are in our affiliate disclosure.
If you think a fact on this site is wrong, contact us with the source if you have one, and we’ll check it.