The longer answers, grouped by what you're after

A licence means the operator is held to a set of binding conditions: it has to verify your age before you play, keep customer money separate from its operating funds, offer deposit limits and self-exclusion, and submit to audits. It doesn't guarantee you'll win — nothing does — but it does mean the game is run honestly and you have somewhere to escalate a complaint if things go wrong.

Scroll to the bottom of the operator's site and you'll find a licence number, usually next to the Commission's logo. Copy it into the public register at gamblingcommission.gov.uk and you'll see the licence status and the company behind the brand. If a site can't show you a number, or the number doesn't check out, walk away.

Start with the operator's own complaints process — they're required to have one. If that doesn't resolve it, you can take the matter to an independent ADR (alternative dispute resolution) body, which every licensed operator must be signed up to. The Gambling Commission doesn't settle individual disputes itself, but it does act on patterns of bad behaviour, so reporting still matters.

No, and this catches people out constantly. Slots usually count 100%, but table games and live casino often contribute far less — sometimes 10%, sometimes nothing. So a bonus you planned to clear on blackjack might barely move the wagering bar. The game weighting sits in the bonus terms; read it before you assume an offer suits how you play.

Genuinely, there usually isn't one on the wagering itself — winnings from a no-wagering reward are real money you can withdraw. The things to still check are the cap on how much you can win, the games the spins are locked to, and any time limit. Brands like Casushi and several Gamesys sites build welcomes around this, which is why they tend to score well with us.

Because the headline number is the marketing, not the value. A '£300 welcome' at 45x wagering can be near-impossible to clear, while a modest wager-free offer hands you something real. We deliberately weight bonus type and wagering above size in our scores, because the size figure is the part designed to catch your eye rather than serve you.

The terms in force when you opt in are the ones that apply to your bonus, but operators change their promotions for new players regularly. That's why we describe offer types rather than promising fixed amounts — and why the live terms on the operator's page always win over anything you read elsewhere, including here.

When a reader follows one of our links and signs up, the operator pays us a commission. That's the whole model, and we're upfront about it. The key point: it's paid on a flat basis across the brands we list, so we've no financial reason to favour one over another. The scores follow the criteria, not the cheque.

We can't, and it'd be a red flag if we could — we're an independent comparison site with no access to any operator's systems. For deposits, withdrawals, verification or locked accounts, contact the operator directly; they hold your details and we don't. Our role ends at helping you compare and choose.

We revisit the brands and their offer types regularly and stamp the page with the date of the last review so you can see how current it is. Things move in this market, so treat any specific figure as a snapshot and confirm it on the operator's site before you act on it.

More than you'd think. Studios like Pragmatic Play, Play'n GO and Hacksaw have their own house styles, volatility ranges and feature sets, so a library leaning on one will feel different from one built on another. For live casino, Evolution dominates, and the depth of its tables is a fair proxy for how serious an operator is about that room.

Normal table games are software — the outcome is decided by a random number generator. Live casino streams a real human dealer from a studio, and you play the actual cards or wheel in real time. It's slower and more social, and the game-show formats (think Crazy Time) only exist in the live format. Which you prefer is taste, not quality.