How We Rate and Review

Our core goal has always been the same – to be authentic and to keep things accurate and current. And as a team that loves everything slots, we feel it’s important to share our insider knowledge with you to help you understand the behind-the-scenes process. Here goes.

How We Create Statistically Accurate Ratings

We’re all about honesty and accuracy here at JohnSlots. We share your passion for the online casino industry and support that by providing honest and accurate ratings for every online casino and slot machine. How, you ask? Well, it all comes down to our three-step process:

• Gathering data: What is it? Who created it? Is it licensed? Is it fair?
• Analysis: The finer points—we dig beneath the surface level.
• Rating: A transparent and honest evaluation.

We do the testing ourselves, and every member of our review team is an experienced gambler with years of personal and professional experience. All data is analysed using advanced methodologies such as the Wilson score interval and cluster analysis to review and rate based on fact, not just biased opinion.

We Gather Data

Every slot and casino review starts with a comprehensive data-gathering process. We leave no stone unturned—security measures, licenses, certificates, features, rules, and more.

Out 7-step Analysis Process When Evaluating Casinos

Every online casino is unique. However, industry expectations and the use of white-label providers mean they have some key features in common, including a games lobby, cashier, and promotions. Our reviewers check that these features cut the mustard while highlighting the aspects that make the site unique.

1. Number of Games: The best online casinos stack their games room with the latest and greatest slots, table games, live dealer games, and instant-win games. But there is more to a good casino than a four-digit games room. Quality beats quantity every time, so provably fair parameters, uniqueness, gameplay, and innovative features are also considered.
2. Payment Methods and Withdrawal Speed: The days when you could only use a debit card to deposit are thankfully long gone. Modern players demand variety, so we look for methods such as e-wallets (PayPal, Neteller), prepaid cards (Paysafecard), bank transfers, and cryptocurrencies. Unfortunately, fixed withdrawal fees and percentage charges aren’t uncommon, so we always recommend casinos that don’t impose transaction fees, as well as ones that process withdrawals up to 3 days.
3. Bonuses and Promotions: You want a welcome bonus when you join, whether it comes in the form of free spins, a matched deposit, or a welcome package. But the best sites reward loyalty, too. So, we check for cashback offers, reload promotions, VIP/loyalty schemes, daily bonuses, and more. No deposit bonuses are scarce but always welcomed, so if we find a casino that offers a free bonus, we’ll tell you all about it!
4. Customer Service: Online casinos rarely have physical locations and many don’t offer phone support. However, they take your money and need your trust, so they need to offer professional and helpful support. Preferably, it should be available around the clock, with multiple options such as live chat, email/support tickets, and SMS. We conduct a thorough test by asking questions, trying options, checking third-party review replies, and generally putting their competency to the test.
5. User Interface Mobile Version: Nearly all casinos have mobile apps these days, but some aren’t as slick and user-friendly as others. The mobile website or app should offer easy accessibility, while accounting for those with disabilities—inclusivity is very important.
6. Security and Trustworthiness: Essential security protocols for an online casino include SSL encryption, profile verification, 2-factor authentication, and secure transactions. User reviews are helpful here, as they let us look at the bigger picture and pinpoint potential security flaws, data misuse, and verification issues.
7. Legitimate Licence: We only recommend licensed casinos. In the United Kingdom, it means the casino must be licensed by the UK Gambling Commission, with license details clearly displayed. Where international casinos are concerned, licenses must come from authorities based in countries like Malta, Curaçao, and Gibraltar.

How We Evaluate Slots

Our slots rating process is simple but robust and fail-proof, allowing our experts to spot the best games possible. Thanks to our strict criteria, we can bring you the informative, in-depth and transparent reviews you’re looking for – our buffs leave no stone unturned. If they find anything that sounds off or come across any challenges, they’ll flag it up so you can make an informed decision.

More than that, our expert team are suckers for testing out slots for both fun and real money, and they always keep their finger on the pulse for the latest releases from top developers. Where possible, they aim to review and rate brand-new and follow-up titles before they’re released, giving you a chance to be ahead of the game.

In the upcoming sections, we’ll go over each of the criteria listed below to introduce you to our step-by-step rating system. We’ll show you how we perform routine checks and ensure our recommendations are safe and trustworthy.

These are the top factors that impact our slot reviews:

1. Special features and game mechanics
2. RTP and volatility
3. Winning potential
4. Minimum and maximum bets
5. Jackpots
6. Slot theme
7. Design and sounds
8. Originality and uniqueness
9. Overall experience
10. Safety and trustworthiness

As shown in the infographics below, we trust our 10-factor rating system to help us achieve our ultimate goal – to provide you with the most transparent, trusted and up-to-date reviews possible and help you find the best place to play.

Independent Reviews

At JohnSlots, our slot reviews are completely independent and honestly written by our team of experts. The aim is to provide you as players all the information regarding that release – including theme, RTP, volatility, and features – so that you can make an informed decision about whether the game is right for you.

What’s more, we always support responsible gambling practices, so our slot reviews always include crucial information to support you in this, such as the stake sizes available plus whether or not you have a realistic chance of landing anything close to the maximum win.

We Update Our Reviews Regularly

Keeping our content up to date has become second nature to us. We aim to keep our website dynamic and ensure that our reviews and recommendations are as current and high quality as possible.

But gambling is a fast-changing industry, and it’s not enough to produce a review or page and forget all about it. We like to keep tabs on all our published content and are not afraid to revamp any piece or remove it from our site if it stops serving its purpose; if any new information comes to light, such as with a remastered title, then this is added to the review.

Our home page alone can reveal how much work is involved in keeping our site updated, but we love it! Staying switched on is what we do best. It can be challenging, but no update is trouble big enough if it means we can keep you up to speed with the most recent reviews – below are some of the most popular slot reviews we have.

We Analyse Data

Testing and gathering data about an online casino or slot is only one part of our review process. Once we have the information we need, we use tried-and-proven methodologies to analyse it:

• Wilson score interval
• Bayesian averages
• Item response theory
• Cluster analysis
• Predictive modelling

These methods are used to identify pros and cons and build an accurate representation of the casino/slot:

Wilson Score Interval

Sites like Trustpilot can be good sources for identifying user issues, as well as standout features like customer support. However, due to the nature of the gambling sector, users are more inclined to discuss negative experiences, many of which are influenced by a bonus term misunderstanding or simply a run of bad luck. It means casinos get bad press when they do wrong—and sometimes when they don’t—and don’t always get the praise when they deserve it.

So, we use the Wilson score interval to account for all reviews and experiences. It helps us create a more reliable score and paints an accurate picture of the casino and its pros and cons.

Bayesian Averages

The Bayesian average is used to estimate averages when data sets are small, helping us to determine true user experiences—for slots and casinos—when there is very little data. We use our own data in this calculation, as well as the limited information that we can find about the subject of our review. It makes the scoring fair and ensures that new slots and casinos are not unfairly penalised.

Item Response Theory (IRT)

Fairness is integral to every slot experience, and that’s where IRT comes in. We use IRT to calculate how difficult it is for a player to win or lose a specific slot game. That way, we can confirm or dispute metrics provided by the developer and ensure that real-world examples are considered.

Cluster Analysis

Using cluster analysis, we’re able to group slots and casinos based on similar themes and features. We use this technique to spot features and patterns that may not be immediately obvious, and this allows us to build lists of similar titles that help players find what they like.

Predictive Modelling

Using historical data, predictive models can estimate future trends in the online gaming sector. It helps us to understand what players are gravitating toward and where future trends will be, which in turn means we can focus on aspects of a slot or casino that players will actually be interested in.

We Give Scores

As you can see, we use a lot of complicated methodologies when conducting our reviews, but we always endeavour to present our final ratings in a clear and concise way. You don’t need to be a mathematician to understand our ratings—you don’t even need to be an experienced casino gamer. Everything is presented in a simple way that inexperienced gamblers will understand, and veterans will appreciate. If you check our existing casino and slot reviews, you’ll see that we always give scores from one to five for the most important categories.

A casino review, for instance, includes categories such as customer support, game selection, payment selection, and bonuses. As for slot reviews, we give one overall score, while explaining how we got to that score and considering elements such as RTP, volatility, theme, gaming mechanics, betting range, and bonus features.

Our Evaluation Workflow – Summarized

Our growing team of 12 experts evaluates from 5 to 15 casinos and 10 to 20 slots each month.

The evaluation criteria include all important elements like security, payment methods, customer service, interface, bonuses and more. After each assessment, our most senior member – Head of Content – examines and verifies the information.

Here’s a breakdown of the time we invest each month:

• For each casino review, the team dedicates approximately 60 hours of work and £120 for deposits and playtesting
• The most time-consuming parts are “Data Collection and Verification”, taking up to 16 hours per casino, and “Research”, taking up to 8 hours before the start of each review.

Every evaluation includes a member of the team creating a real registration and testing out all the available casino and slot features. We are proud of our research process, which also includes real player reviews sourced from internet forums, rating websites, and other communities.

Why Should You Trust JohnSlots’ Ratings?

There are a lot of review platforms out there, so why should you trust our ratings above all others? Well, there are a few reasons:

1. We have a team of dedicated gaming experts testing and reviewing online casinos and slots. They are all veterans with 50 years of combined experience and know how to spot a good platform or game. Since we first began, we’ve created 1,500+ slot reviews and 300+ casino reviews, so you can rest assured that we know what we’re doing.
2. We are never dishonest or biased. We carefully test each platform/game and gather as much data as possible before rating anything that goes on our site.
3. We never jump to conclusions when reviewing a new platform. We use a statistical, data-focused approach that ensures a complete analysis devoid of bias.

This is why we’re considered a top source for online slot and casino reviews in the UK. Check out our reviews for yourself to see all of this hard work in action!

Our Promise to You

As avid slot players, we wouldn’t want you to play low-quality games at shady online casinos – we are here to bring you the latest and most exciting slots news. Thus, we promise to deliver you the most accurate, transparent and objective reviews possible. Even if it means pointing out the bad stuff on a website, such as irregular rewards, small bonuses, slow withdrawals or incompetent customer support. Below are links to some useful pages about slots on our site.