About Pooky

The people behind the reviews

Pooky grew out of frustration with "best casino" lists that were plainly compiled by someone who had never signed up to a single operator they were pushing. Our response was to build something different: a compact group of seasoned players, writers and analysts who focus on the seven markets we actually know inside out, rather than trying to blanket the entire world with shallow coverage. We ask the same questions any player would ask before putting their own money at risk: is the catalogue worth playing, do the bonus terms survive a careful read, does the support team give real answers, and does the cash-out actually arrive on schedule?

How a review takes shape

Every casino that lands on this site has been pushed through the same four-stage check, run by a member of our review team on a genuine live account.

Signing up and funding the account

We begin by registering and making a deposit using our own cash. That first stage already reveals plenty: whether sign-up is slick or painful, and whether the payment option advertised for our market goes through cleanly.

Working through the game library

Next we spend genuine time inside the games themselves, covering slots across different volatility bands, live-dealer tables and classic table titles, to assess whether the catalogue has real depth, which studios are supplying it, and whether everything behaves well on a mobile screen.

Putting customer support under pressure

We get in touch with support over chat and email, mixing straightforward requests with trickier ones. A fast reply isn't enough by itself; we also look for whether the agent actually answers the specific question rather than firing back a canned script.

Timing a real cash-out

The closing step is always a genuine withdrawal, timed from the moment we hit submit until the funds show up as cleared. A slow payout, or one bogged down by surprise document requests, drags the final score down regardless of how tempting the welcome bonus looked.

How we remain independent

Full disclosure: this site is funded by affiliate commissions. When you register at a casino via a link on these pages, the operator may send us a referral fee, which costs you nothing and is what lets us publish the reviews free of charge. That revenue has no bearing on rankings whatsoever: we've walked away from operators dangling unusually generous commission rates, and any brand already featured gets pulled the moment its payouts, terms, fairness or support start sliding. If an operator disappoints us, we spell it out in public.

Get in touch

Noticed a bonus figure that has shifted, disagree with one of our scores, or interested in working together? Head to the Contact page or email us directly at hello@pooky.best; every note is read by a human, not a bot.