How Gaia Casinos scores casinos for Canadian readers
Seven areas feed every score, and we are open about what a comparison site can and cannot confirm.
Scores weigh licence openness, bonus clarity, payments and payouts, games, support and safer-play tools. They are editorial opinions built on public information, never guarantees. We do not state that an operator serves a province or holds a given licence unless we have verified it ourselves.
A ranking only deserves trust when its recipe is public. This page lists the ingredients, the things we deliberately leave out and the wall between the commercial side of the site and the numbers.
If rules or best practice shift, the method follows, and each page shows its date.
The seven areas behind a score
| Area | What counts |
|---|---|
| Licence openness | Company name, licence number and regulator are visible and can be traced. |
| Bonus clarity | Wagering, caps, deadlines and game contribution are easy to find and to understand. |
| Payments | CAD, Interac e-Transfer and other routes, with fees and limits stated. |
| Payouts | Published conditions, verification rules and holds. |
| Games | Range of titles and clear information about each. |
| Support | Contact channels, languages and quality of replies. |
| Safer play | Limits, breaks, self-exclusion and signposts to help. |
What we confirm and what we leave unsaid
Our raw material is public: pages, terms and registers. We avoid saying that an operator takes players from a certain province, carries a specific licence or pays in a given time unless an official source supports it. Where we could not verify, we tell you and show how to look, as /en-ca/field-notes/tracing-a-casino-licence-step-by-step/ does.
Why the Canadian patchwork matters
Canada's rules are provincial. Ontario regulates private operators through the AGCO, Alberta launched a regulated market in 2026 and several provinces rely mainly on their own platforms. Sites licensed in places like Kahnawake or Malta are scored on openness, but that licence is not approval from your province. /en-ca/field-notes/who-watches-the-tables-in-canada/ explains the background.
Keeping business and scoring apart
Some operators have commercial agreements with us. These do not buy score or position, and we do not rewrite reviews on request. /en-ca/how-we-earn/ and the /en-ca/editorial-code/ describe the rules.
What a score cannot do
It is a photograph of one moment. Terms, licences and payment options change afterwards. Take the number as a starting point and confirm the details at the operator and in the regulator's register.
Questions readers ask us
Is it possible for a casino to buy a better place?
No. Commercial deals have no influence on position or score. A commission may reach us when you register through our links, and we say so openly. The ranking is our own call, revised whenever the facts change, and operators have no say in what a review contains.
Is each casino tested with real money?
We do not claim tests that we did not do. Reviews build on public information, terms and registers, and say so openly. When a detail such as payout speed cannot be confirmed, no figure is printed, and the page tells you how to test it yourself.
When was the ranking last refreshed?
Every page displays an update date, and we revisit pages periodically. Because offers and conditions change quickly, always confirm current details with the operator before you register. When terms change, the scores that depend on them are revised, and the date moves with them.
Where we checked
- Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO): Ontario's regulator for licensed online gambling and the rule-maker for operators in that market.
- iGaming Ontario: the Ontario agency whose public directory lists the registered and approved operators.
- Kahnawake Gaming Commission: the authority that issues interactive gaming permits in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake.
- Malta Gaming Authority (MGA): an international gambling regulator that many operators cite in their footers.
These are outside websites. None of them has a business relationship with this site.