Up-To-Date Online Casino Reviews
New casinos open their doors to Canadian customers every week, but that doesn’t mean they’re worth a deposit.
At CanadaCasinoNews, we investigate all new casinos but only review those that are fully licensed, reliable, and adhere to a satisfactory set of standards and practices.
For the most up-to-date casino reviews on the internet, trust your experts at CanadaCasinoNews.
Our 8-Step Review Process
Thanks to our in-depth casino review process, you’ll never need to wonder which casinos are worth your time and money ever again.
In this article, we’ll detail precisely how we evaluate each platform, website, and application, and what criteria we look at before reporting the results to you, the customers!
Just remember, if you see a casino on this website, it has already gone through this rigorous review process.
Below, we’ll list just some of the things we look for in a “top tier” gambling site before going into greater detail about our 8-step evaluation process.
- A proper gambling license from a reputable gambling jurisdiction
- Frequent and generous bonuses and rewards
- A large selection of games from quality studios
- Multiple options for payment
- A higher-than-average payout percentage
- 24/7 customer support options
- Mobile casino experience
- A dedicated Responsible Gambling Program
1. Check for a Legitimate, Reputable License
Canadian gamblers often ask us how they can identify the legitimate casinos from the scams. Our answer always includes telling them to check for a license from a reputable gaming jurisdiction.
Examples of trusted regulators include the Malta Gaming Authority and the UK Gambling Commission. They are not only well-known, but hold all operators under their umbrella to very high standards of quality.
We also check for licenses issued by other EEA countries, as they offer a similar level of security to players.
2. Examine the Site’s Bonuses and Promotions
Online gambling is a highly competitive industry, so many casinos offer bonuses and promotions to attract new customers and keep current ones.
This is very beneficial to most players, as it gives them a chance to take advantage of: welcome bonuses, bonus money free spins, reload bonuses – and the list goes on and on.
Since most Canadians put a lot of stock in these offerings, one of the first things we do is check the promotions a casino is making available to its Canadian players.
Welcome Bonuses
While reviewing casinos for our users, we take note of the very best Welcome Bonus packages that we come across.
While these vary dramatically from casino to casino, there are a lot of similarities between these packages as well.
For instance, most feature some sort of deposit bonus, which is typically calculated as a percentage of the user’s first deposit (and can usually be 100% or more).
However, some casinos extend the bonus money for the 2nd, 3rd, and sometimes even the 4th deposit! This represents a lot of free money that you can use to build up your bonus balance!
Free Spins
Slot players love free spins, but even table gamers love to try their luck at the slot machines now and then.
You’ll come across a variety of free spin promotions at online casinos in Canada, many of which are tied to welcome bonuses, regular promotions, and sometimes even tournaments.
Lots of casinos also like to dole out free spins as rewards for those loyal customers who keep coming back.
Special and Limited Time Only Offers
Our review team spends a lot of time researching the various limited-time and special bonuses offered by online casinos.
These include a whole variety of reload bonuses, cashback bonuses, and special promotions related to special times of the year (where bonuses become bigger and better).
From drawings that offer thousands of dollars in cash to casino tournaments with an endless selection of prizes, we’re happy to let you know what your favourite casinos are doing to keep things exciting.
VIP Programs
It’s common for casinos in Canada to offer some sort of VIP program reward system in order to keep their customers coming back.
These are usually point-based, which allows players to collect points when they place bets, accomplish tasks, or hit some other goal. As they progress up the program ranks, they unlock a wide range of awards, including free spins, special bonuses, and even cash.
3. Look at the Selection of Games
As important as bonuses are when reviewing a particular casino website, the games collection offered by the site is a big factor in the final rating.
After all, the main reason to join a casino is to play!
Of course, the best sites allow their users to take advantage of a wide variety of high-quality games from top providers. The more variety, the merrier! From slots and tables games to bingo, live casino games, and more, we love to see a near-endless array of options.
Selection of Slots
Slot games are among the most popular when it comes to online gambling, so any casino worth its salt should offer a wide variety of classic slots, jackpot slots and video slots.
In fact, did you know that more than 200 brand new slot games are released every single month? When reviewing casinos, we take a good, long look at their slot offerings to see how they’re fairing in terms of variety, whether or not they’re keeping up with trends, and whether or not they have the biggest, most in-demand games or not.
Poker Rooms
There’s no denying that online poker is a force to be reckoned with. In both online and land-based casinos, you tend to find plenty of people who want to participate in classic games like Omaha Poker and Casino Hold Em.
And while digital games are fine for most players, others like to find casinos that offer Live Dealer Poker games, as this provides them with a much more authentic experience.
Online Table Games
Table games are a staple in any high-quality casino, so they should be well-represented in any online casino as well.
We’re mostly talking about the most popular games, like Blackjack, Roulette, and Baccarat, all of which offer tons of variations that can serve to make for a more exciting player experience.
Ideally, we hope to see a fair amount of RNG versions of these games as well as live options.
Live Dealer Tables
Not every gambler is a fan of the digital experience, and casinos know this. That’s why the best online platforms offer a fair selection of Live Dealer games as well. These offer users a “real casino” experience from anywhere they can access the web.
Examples include Live Roulette, Live Poker, Live Blackjack, Live Baccarat, as well as variants of all these games.
A great example of a casino that fully embraces this is CasiGo, which has over 1000 games in its online casino.
Game Providers
We don’t often think about it, but it’s actually the casino software providers who are most responsible for our experience.
Examples include IGT, NetEnt, and Microgaming, the three largest digital gaming companies in the world right now.
When we look at a casino, we expect to see a fair selection of games from these three (extremely reliable) gaming giants. In fact, the more, the better!
Branded Tables and Exclusive Games
We love it when a casino offers special games or variations that you just can’t find anywhere else. These are the result of the website making a special deal with a game developer in order to attract and retain more customers.
If there are any such games, variations, or branded tables, you can rest assured it will be mentioned in our review. Of course, we’ll also include an in-depth review of the unique game itself, so you know what sort of experience you can expect.
4. Check for Reliable, Safe Payment Methods
If you want to use real money on any online casino site, the payment methods supported by the platform should be extremely important to you.
Some of the most popular payment methods in Canada, include Visa and Mastercard, Interac, InstaDebit, iDebit, EcoPayz, PaySafeCard and, more recently, Bitcoin. However, not all platforms are this versatile.
Most reliable casinos only partner with trusted, globally-recognized payment methods (think Visa, Mastercard, etc.) with the goal of providing users with a hassle-free experience.
The best casinos offer a wide array of credit and debit options, as well as bank transfers, e-wallets, electronic transfers, prepaid cards. This gives the customer more options and allows them to choose the deposit and withdrawal method they’re most comfortable with.
Of course, whenever you read one of our casino reviews, we always provide a complete list of the available payment possibilities.
Fast Deposits
The best thing about most of the methods listed above is that they allow deposits to go through immediately. This means that you don’t need to wait more than a few minutes to start playing once you transfer your money.
Indeed, in the interest of increasing anonymity and security, many casinos operating in Canada are starting to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment.
However, there are some payment methods that require additional verification, and can slow down the deposit process by hours or even days.
Withdrawal Speed
Getting your money out of an online casino isn’t quite as easy as getting it on. However, if you play with real money, there’s going to be a time where you want to make a withdrawal of your winnings.
The very best casinos can offer a withdrawal period of under 24 hours.
However, this is not common. Most process withdrawals in 36 to 72 hours, and some take even longer!
This is because the site needs to conduct additional security checks in order to make sure you are the actual owner of the account. It might seem annoying at first, but – trust us – these are exactly the sort of protections you want.
5. Analyze the Overall Return-to-Player
The site’s RTP is one of the most important things for any player to know, yet few gamblers have the faintest idea of what this acronym stands for. Indeed, the “Return to Player” of a casino refers to how much you can expect to earn back at any given time.
It’s calculated using a variety of factors, but you want it to be as close to 100% as possible.
Here’s a little bit more information:
Let’s assume you’re playing at an online casino with an RTP of 96%. This means that for every C$100 that is bet, the casino will pay C$96.
Of course, these numbers are calculated in the long-term, which doesn’t mean that you specifically will get C$96 of every C$100 returned to you.
It’s just an average determined by an independent auditing company based on the RTP of the site’s games.
If you want to know more about RTP (and which casinos have the highest ratings), check out our post about The Best Payout Casinos in Canada.
6. Investigate the Site’s Customer Support
Great customer support is one of the most important factors for any business, so we spend a lot of time ensuring the online casinos we recommend are well-staffed and well-prepared to take care of their users.
We evaluate each site based on the following criteria:
Availability – The best casinos offer 24/7 customer support. This guarantees that customers always have access to the help they need, no matter the time of the day.
Speed – When testing a site’s customer support, we always make sure to measure how long it takes the team to get back to us.
Nobody likes waiting too long to get a problem solved, and we’re happy to report which casino’s reps are the quickest on the trigger.
Variety – The best casino operators offer multiple channels of communication, such as live chat, email, and phone numbers.
We always recommend that players attempt to use live chat first, as this can put them in touch with a helpful, courteous agent in a matter of minutes.
However, the more options you have to get help, the better.
Success Rate – The best customer service with the most availability and variety doesn’t mean a thing if they can’t actually fix your problem! That’s why we always report on the success rate of the person who answered our call for help.
Of course, we also take special note of those who went above and beyond in their efforts.
7. Test the Mobile Casino Application
Believe it or not, most online gambling takes place on mobile phones and tablets, not computers.
However, while every online casino wants in on this mobile action, not all of them are prepared to deliver the sort of experience that users demand. That’s why we closely evaluate the mobile applications of sites we review.
Not only are we looking for easy gameplay and optimized navigation, but we’re paying attention to the mobile deposit and withdrawal process as well. Of course, we love to see specific bonuses for mobile as well as plenty of game variety.
8. Find out About the Responsible Gaming Commitments
Most reputable casinos provide some sort of Responsible Gaming Program to help players who might be developing an addiction.
The best programs include advice and FAQs, as well as links to non-profits organizations that can help gambling addicts recover.
They may also place limits on a player’s deposits or even give them the option to exclude themselves entirely.
Types of Casinos We Review
There are tens of thousands of online casinos spread out all over the internet, with no two being exactly the same.
In this section, we’ll give you a brief introduction to the types of online casinos we review.
Classic – Online Casinos
These are the most common type of casinos you’ll find on the web. They don’t necessarily focus on any one area of gaming, so they offer a nice mix of slots, table games, Live Casino games, RNG Games, and more.
Some of the most popular “classic” casinos serving Canada include Videoslots, Mr Green, and LeoVegas.
Strictly Live Casinos
It might seem to go against the spirit of the whole “internet gambling” thing, but players love a Live Casino environment.
These are casinos that ignore slots and RNG games and focus only on live-streamed games from a brick-and-mortar location. Some even have exclusive games and variations you won’t find anywhere else.
Crypto Casinos
Cryptocurrencies provide unrivalled anonymity and security for players, and many of them enjoy using Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the like to make deposits at their favourite casinos.
Some casinos have adapted their offerings to be crypto-only, even if they offer more or less the exact same games as the competition.
Bitcoin Casinos
Bitcoin is the gold standard for cryptocurrency and remains one of the most popular ways to pay for things on the internet. Not only is it safe and reliable, but it is not controlled by any government or organization.
Of course, it is also the most valuable crypto, so it should come as no surprise that there are some Bitcoin-only casinos floating around out there.
Just remember, trust our reviews. If they aren’t on our site, they aren’t worth your time.
Mobile / App-Based Casinos
There are online casinos out there that have specifically designed their platforms for a mobile or tablet-based audience. An example of such a casino is LeoVegas, which is also known as the mobile casino.
One of the benefits of using a mobile-only casino is that you already know that every game is optimized for use in the app instead of desktop.
You’re Just a Click Away from the Best Online Casinos in Canada!
Our comprehensive Canadian online casino reviews are focused on providing you with all the
information you need to decide which platform is right for you.
We use a variety of strict criteria to judge which online casinos are the very best.
From the license to the bonus offers to the types of games they offer, we leave no stone unturned in providing honest, reliable reviews.