From the desk
Who pays the desk
Keeping a couple of hundred sets of casino terms read and current is work, and work gets paid for. Here the cheque comes from the casinos, by way of referral programmes. This page walks through the arrangement and marks where it ends.
Short answer
Plenty of operators run affiliate schemes, and Wavequarry Networks B.V., the company behind OwnACasino, is signed up to several. Click one of our casino links, register, deposit — and the operator owes the publisher a fee. You pay nothing on top, the offer is unchanged, and the fee has no vote on rankings.
One referral, start to finish
- A casino button on our page is clicked. Its target is a /go/ address on ownacasino.co.uk.
- That address drops two short-lived cookies and hands the browser on to the operator, tagged as coming from OwnACasino.
- The visitor chooses whether to open an account. Most leave without one, and in that case no fee arises.
- A registration plus a first deposit gets logged by the operator against our tag.
- Once its accounting period closes, the operator settles with the publisher under its programme rules.
How the fees are worked out
Two formulas dominate, and some contracts mix them. One is a flat amount for every new player who deposits. The other gives the affiliate a cut of what that player loses to the house, net of bonuses and costs, for the lifetime of that account. Terms vary from casino to casino and get renegotiated regularly. We keep the figures private, and the reviewers who score a casino never see them.
What the money cannot touch
Bonus, wagering, deposit caps and payout rules come out exactly the same whether you reach the casino via our button or by typing its name into a browser. Where a deal is reserved for our readers, the page flags it next to the offer. Ladder order follows the twelve checks on how we rate — licence, terms, speed of cash-outs, limits, support and the rest — and a fatter commission shifts nobody up a single rung.
Spotting a referral link
Referral links are the casino buttons and named operator links that pass through /go/. Links to the Gambling Commission, GamCare, BeGambleAware, GAMSTOP, game studios or our sources pay nothing. The privacy policy names the cookies a referral drops.
Casinos we have no deal with
A good number of reviewed operators have no contract with us at all. The same twelve checks apply to them, and some of them outrank paying partners. A partner with weak terms gets written up just as frankly as any other casino.
Offers we refuse
Cash for a ladder spot, a score or a review; copy drafted by an operator and dressed up as ours; bonus credit or free play in return for coverage; codes that come with strings attached about praising the brand. All of these get turned down.
Partners that misbehave
A partner that starts stalling cash-outs, tilts its terms against players or attracts a steady stream of credible complaints loses points, and the review says why. No improvement, no referral link. A signed contract is no shield against a poor write-up.
Partner is not the same as licensed
Being one of our partners says nothing on whether a given casino may legally serve you. For Great Britain that question is answered by a Gambling Commission licence alone. Each review names the licence it found, which you can verify on the Commission’s register.
Above any fee
No commission is worth anyone staking more than they can spare. OwnACasino is written for over-18s only. If gambling is getting away from you, the National Gambling Helpline, 0808 8020 133, is free and open at every hour, and GAMSTOP shuts the door on every GB-licensed operator in one go.
Where the fees go
The fees are collected by Wavequarry Networks B.V., Dr. M.J. Hugenholtzweg 25, Willemstad, Curaçao. Ask about a particular link or about the arrangement as a whole at [email protected]. Related reading: the terms of use and the reader disclaimer.