Online casino rules vary by country
Start with the place where you live or intend to use the service. Online casinos by country are easier to compare when the local rules come first: a brand may use the same logo in several markets while running different websites, under different operators and different permissions. An English lobby or a familiar currency tells you little about which version of the site you have reached.
Our guides cover Canada, Brazil, Portugal, Germany, Norway, Finland, Australia and New Zealand. Each guide explains how that market works and links to the relevant reviews in our catalogue. The review lists reflect the countries named in the operators' published restrictions. A casino can appear in a list even when its reviewed website has no licence in that country, so use the guide and the operator information together.
Three questions to ask before comparing casinos
- Is the exact website authorised for this product?
- Look at the operator's legal name, the domain and the scope of the authorisation. A licence for betting on a football match may say nothing about slots. The permission that matters is the one for the service you are looking at, in the place where you intend to use it.
- Is the account open to someone in this location?
- Check the terms for residence, physical location and registration separately. Some operators accept residents of a country but exclude a particular province. Game rules can apply narrower restrictions than the account itself.
- Do the rules apply to the feature you are comparing?
- Payments, game libraries and bonuses can differ across local versions. A logo in a cashier, a studio name in a lobby or a welcome banner visible without logging in is a lead to check. It cannot settle eligibility on its own.
What changes from one market to the next
In Canada, start with the province. Ontario has a competitive regulated market with its own operator arrangements, while other provinces follow different models. Alberta's framework is also distinct. In Germany, permission is organised by product: virtual slots, online poker and online casino games have different legal categories. Portugal has a national online gaming regulator and its own register of websites.
Norway and Australia make the distinction between a general review and an offer for local players particularly important. Norway maintains an exclusive rights model, and Australia prohibits the provision of online casino games to customers in the country. A general casino review may still be useful for research or for identifying an operator in a transaction record. Its presence in the directory is no invitation to register.
Finland and New Zealand are useful examples of why dates matter. Their regulatory transitions have different milestones for applications, operation and advertising. An application, public announcement or supplier approval does not mean the same thing as a licence that allows a named operator to open accounts. In Brazil, former federal permissions must be read against the later measure affecting fixed odds betting and online casino games.
How the review directory is built
We read the account and referral restrictions recorded in each review. A country explicitly restricted on that basis is excluded from the corresponding directory. When a restriction names one province, the country and province views are treated separately. Restrictions that apply only to individual games are reported in the review and do not automatically remove the whole casino from the country view.
The resulting directory is a way to navigate the catalogue. It is separate from a regulator's list of licensed operators. The editorial rating belongs to the reviewed site and is not a local approval score. The payment filter reflects methods in that review, not a promise that those methods work for every account or location.
Using a country guide to answer a specific question
For a licence question, start with the local rules and identify the registered entity and website. For a payment question, note the account currency and separate the deposit method from the withdrawal method. For a bonus question, look for dated terms that show the market, product, eligibility, expiry and withdrawal conditions. If those pieces do not agree, leave the offer out of the comparison.
Read the licence guides for more about authorisation or the payment method guides for the mechanics of transfers. Use the country guide for local context and the casino review catalogue for the underlying reviews.