How to tell if an online casino is trustworthy: five tests you can repeat
The tests · with examples of real clauses
A trustworthy casino is not the one that says so on its front page, but the one that puts in writing how it will treat you when you ask for your money. These are the five tests we use, in the order worth running them, with what we found at real casinos.
Almost every guide about trustworthy casinos ends on the same sentence: «pick a licensed casino». It is a good beginning and a poor ending. In our register all thirteen casinos hold a licence in force and their scores run from 1.5 to 5. The licence is the door; what decides whether you get paid without trouble is in the terms.
These five tests are the ones we used to build the register of trusted online casinos in Chile. They are ordered from the quickest to the slowest. If a casino fails the first, there is no point going on.
Index of this folio9 entries on this pageOpen the index
- Nº 01Test 1: the licence is in force in the register
- Nº 02Test 2: the certificate names the domain you play on
- Nº 03Test 3: verification is in writing
- Nº 04Test 4: the withdrawal cap is in writing
- Nº 05Test 5: Chile is not on the restricted-country list
- Nº 06The five tests, side by side
- Nº 07After the five tests: the test withdrawal
- Nº 08What these tests do not tell you
- Nº 09Frequently asked questions
Test 1: the licence is in force in the register
What you do: look the casino up in the official register of the licence it declares. For Curaçao that is cert.cga.cw; for Anjouan, its public licence register.
What you look at: the status. In Curaçao it must read Active. In Anjouan it must read valid, and the expiry date has to be in the future.
What we found: all thirteen casinos pass, but not all of them equally. The Anjouan licences of Wild Fortune, Coins.Game and CoinCasino expire within 90 days; Wild Fortune's on 29.09.2026. That is why the test is worth half a point in those three cases: in force today, up for renewal soon.
The walk-through with screenshots, including the search box's traps, is in how to check a licence.
Test 2: the certificate names the domain you play on
What you do: compare the domain on the certificate with the one in your address bar.
Why it matters: a licence covers one particular domain. A copy of the site on another domain, or a «mirror» someone sent you in a message, is not covered by that certificate even if it carries the same logo.
What we found: in all thirteen casinos the domain matches. At Vave it does not quite: the certificate names vavegame.com rather than vave.com. It is another domain of the same brand and the same company, but we say so because it is exactly the kind of detail this test is looking for.
Test 3: verification is in writing
What you do: open the terms and find the identity verification clause (usually called «KYC», «verification» or «identity»).
What you look at: three things. When it applies: at sign-up, on the first withdrawal, above a certain amount, or «whenever the casino chooses». Which documents it asks for. And how long you have to send them.
What we found:
- Rakebit asks for a selfie or a good-quality photo and a proof of address on the first withdrawal. Demanding, but you know what is coming.
- Bitcasino.io reserves an additional check for withdrawals above 2,500 EUR (clause 6.6).
- Bitsler may ask for proof of age or identity at any time (4.3).
- Wild Fortune reserves identity checks to its own judgement (18.1).
- Vave may ask for documents before any payout, with 14 days to send them (8.7).
- BetFury, in the terms we read, has no verification clause at all.
A strict clause is not a bad thing. Having none is: verification then turns up when the casino decides, with whatever requirements it decides.
Test 4: the withdrawal cap is in writing
What you do: find in the terms the maximum the casino pays out per day, week or month.
Why it matters: if you win a large amount, the cap decides whether you get it in one go or in parts. A written cap is a rule you can do arithmetic with. One that does not exist leaves the decision to the casino.
What we found:
- Rakebit: 10,000 EUR every 24 hours.
- Wild Fortune: 15,000 EUR a month (11.8).
- Bitcasino.io: up to 1,000,000 USDT processed a week (6.10).
- Vave: a win of 50,000 USDT or more may be paid in instalments over 30 days (8.8).
Bitsler, BetFury and the rest publish no cap in anything we could read.
Test 5: Chile is not on the restricted-country list
What you do: find the restricted-country list in the terms and confirm Chile is not on it.
The trap: many lists are not complete in the terms. Bitcasino.io keeps its on a separate page; in Bitsler's text we could read only the first country; Coins.Game says only that it does not accept players from the Netherlands. In those cases we do not stamp the test: we do not know whether Chile is there or not. Rakebit (13 countries) and Wild Fortune (47) publish the whole list, and Chile does not appear.
Why it matters: if you play from a country the casino excludes under its own rules, it can close the account and hold the balance without breaking anything you agreed to.
The five tests, side by side
| Casino | Licence | Domain | Verification | Withdrawals | Chile | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rakebit | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5 |
| Wild Fortune | ½ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 4.5 |
| Bitcasino.io | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | 4 |
| Bitsler | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | — | 3 |
| BetFury | ✓ | ✓ | — | — | — | 2 |
| Cloudbet | ✓ | ✓ | — | — | — | 2 |
| Duelbits | ✓ | ✓ | — | — | — | 2 |
| Jackbit | ✓ | ✓ | — | — | — | 2 |
| Sportsbet.io | ✓ | ✓ | — | — | — | 2 |
| Thunderpick | ✓ | ✓ | — | — | — | 2 |
| TrustDice | ✓ | ✓ | — | — | — | 2 |
| CoinCasino | ½ | ✓ | — | — | — | 1.5 |
| Coins.Game | ½ | ✓ | — | — | — | 1.5 |
The table sums the register up. Look at its shape: the first two columns are full; the next three are nearly empty. That says more about the market than any ranking: holding a licence is ordinary, writing down the rules about money is rare.
After the five tests: the test withdrawal
The tests read paperwork. What is missing is seeing how that paperwork behaves with your money. That is what the test withdrawal is for: a small deposit, a small withdrawal and attention to what happens in between. We explain it in withdrawals and the test withdrawal.
And if at any point something does not add up — the certificate is missing, the terms do not exist, the chat asks you to deposit more to release a withdrawal — there is no need to finish the tests: go through the warning signs and do not deposit.
What these tests do not tell you
None of the five measures whether a casino is fun, whether you will like its games or whether its bonus is good. Nor do they measure the chance of winning: the house edge is the same at a trustworthy casino as at one that is not. What they measure is something more basic and more important: whether the rules about money are written where you can read them before you deposit. How we turn those tests into a score is set out in how we score.