How We Review Casinos — Our Full Methodology
This page lays out exactly how every score on this site gets calculated — no vague criteria, no mystery weighting. If you reckon we've got something wrong about Skycrown or any other casino, you can check our process step by step and tell us where we stuffed it.
Step 1: Registration & First Deposit
We sign up with a real email, real details, and real AUD — usually a $50 opening deposit via a standard Australian payment method. We clock how long ID verification takes, whether the KYC docs get requested upfront or only at withdrawal time (a classic move that bugs a lot of players), and whether the signup flow throws up any weird friction. We note exact times. If the welcome screen promises one thing and the terms say another, we screenshot both.
Step 2: Bonus Claiming & Wagering
We claim the welcome offer and read every line of the terms — not just the headline number. At Skycrown, for example, we'd record the matched percentage, the wagering requirement (say, 40x on bonus funds), the time limit to clear it, and which games actually count toward the rollover. Pokies usually contribute 100%, but live dealer games often sit at 10% or lower and that changes the whole maths of whether the bonus is worth claiming. We track how much we've wagered versus how much the counter says we've wagered, because those two numbers don't always match — hard to say if that's a glitch or something else.
Step 3: Game Testing
Minimum 3 sessions across different categories — pokies, table games, and live dealer. We check whether the RTP is actually displayed on each game (a lot of sites hide this), how long games take to load on mobile over a 4G connection, and whether anything crashes mid-spin. I tested one site at midnight on a Tuesday, which is probably when half of you are playing too, and the live casino lobby had 4 tables down for maintenance with no notice. Stuff like that gets written down.
Step 4: Withdrawal Request
Step 5: Support Contact
Live chat first. We open a conversation, ask one factual question and one intentionally vague question, and record how many minutes until a human responds — not a bot. Email gets a separate test. Response quality is scored on whether the answer actually addressed what we asked, or just copy-pasted a FAQ paragraph at us. Four minutes to connect is fine. Fourteen minutes at 9pm on a Friday is not.
Our Rating Scale
Scores run from 1 to 10. A 9 or 10 means fast verified withdrawals under 2 hours, transparent bonus terms, working games with visible RTPs, and support that answers straight. A 5 or 6 means the casino works but has real friction — slow payouts, buried terms, average support. Anything below 4 or marked "not recommended" means we hit a genuine red flag: withheld winnings, fake game results, or KYC harassment designed to delay payouts.
Conflicts of Interest Policy
Fair dinkum transparency: yes, some casinos on this site pay affiliate commission if you sign up through our links. That's how the site stays running. But — and this matters — no casino can pay to change a score. If Skycrown or anyone else gets a 5/10, that score stays. We've had casinos contact us asking to "reconsider" a low rating. We don't. The review stands, and honestly, a complaint from a casino usually means we got close to something real.