Affiliate Disclosure
This page lays out, in plain terms, how Online Casino earns money, what an affiliate link actually is, what it does and doesn't change about the way reviews are written, and what we promise — and don't promise — about the operators we cover. The fuller context lives on the About and Editorial Policy pages too; this disclosure is the condensed version of the commercial side.
What an affiliate link is
Most outbound links on Online Casino that point at an operator carry a tracking tag, usually written straight into the URL. When a reader follows the link and lands on the operator's site, the operator logs that the visit originated from Online Casino. If that reader then registers, clears identity verification and makes a real-money deposit, the operator pays Online Casino a commission. The figure is either a one-off fee per qualifying registration or, more commonly, a slice of the operator's net revenue from that player across a defined window. Either way the reader pays nothing extra: the same welcome bonus, the same wagering terms and the same cashier limits apply as for any reader who reaches the operator by any other path. The commission comes out of the operator's own marketing budget.
Not every outbound link is affiliated. Links to regulators (ACMA, Curacao eGaming, UKGC), to support services (Gambling Help Online, BetStop), to independent player communities (AskGamblers, Casino Guru, Trustpilot) and to other reference material are plain hyperlinks with no tracking and no commercial tie. Links to game studios are likewise untracked. The rough rule of thumb is simple: if a link points at a casino operator with a clickable signup, assume it's affiliated; if it points anywhere else, assume it isn't.
What the partnership does not buy
A commercial relationship with an operator does not buy that brand a higher score on Online Casino, and the absence of one does not push a score down. The framework documented in the Editorial Policy is applied identically to every brand that gets a full review. In practice we have rated partner operators at six and below, and rated operators with no agreement at eight and above. Two reasons. First, the obvious editorial one: a review site that pads scores for paying brands lasts only as long as it takes readers to notice, which isn't long. Second, a commercial one: a high score that doesn't match what readers meet on the operator's site produces fast cancellations, support escalations and complaints — all of which lift chargeback rates and cut lifetime value, the very metric the operator is paying us to move in the right direction. The long-run commercial logic and the editorial logic point the same way.
What the partnership does buy
What an affiliate relationship buys is access — sometimes — to data the operator doesn't publish on its marketing site. That can mean raw withdrawal-time distributions, bonus participation rates, or KYC clearance times measured against a documented window. Online Casino uses that data where it sharpens a review; it never uses it to write claims that contradict what we saw during ordinary player testing. Where the operator's internal numbers and our observations disagree, the observations win and the disagreement is flagged in the review itself.
How readers can verify this
If you want to test whether the editorial stance above is genuine or just marketing, three pieces of evidence are public. First, the rating distribution itself: across every operator currently on Online Casino, partner and non-partner brands sit on the same curve. Second, the published lists of operators we won't recommend at any rating — mostly partner operators we tested and dropped after support quality, cashier behaviour or licence standing slipped. Third, the change log on each review: every score adjustment carries a date and a one-line reason, and partner operators get no free pass on negative changes. If any of those three patterns stops holding over time, the place to flag it is the Contact page.
What this disclosure does not cover
Three things sit outside this page. First, it isn't legal advice on whether you can lawfully use the operators we review from an Australian address — the About page describes the position under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (Cth) in more detail. Second, it isn't a substitute for doing your own due diligence on the operator: every brand on Online Casino has its own terms, licence references and dispute procedures, and the responsibility to read them rests with each individual player. Third, it isn't a guarantee of operator behaviour: we test rigorously and write honestly, but operator conditions move faster than any review schedule, so any number you read on a review page should be re-checked on the operator's own cashier before it drives a real-money decision.
Responsible gambling, restated
Online Casino is funded by people clicking through and signing up at operators. That model creates an obvious incentive for any affiliate site to push registrations, and that incentive has to be balanced honestly against the harm gambling can cause. We don't recommend gambling as a way to make money. We don't push deposits in our copy. We make every review just as readable as a "do not register" call as a "register" one, and we keep a published list of brands we no longer cover. The Responsible Gambling page covers harm-minimisation tools and Australian support services in detail; please read it before depositing real money anywhere, with or without our review attached.
What we collect from readers who arrive at Online Casino through any of these links is described on the Privacy Policy page; the technical detail of analytics and tracking sits on the Cookie Policy page.
Questions about this disclosure
If anything on this page is unclear, the right place is the Contact page. We respond in writing, on the record, and keep the response on file so the same question doesn't have to be asked twice.