How We Review Finland Online Casinos
The editorial team at KasinoBonusIO, led by owner, editor-in-chief and Finnish gambling community legend Matti Slotte, is dedicated to providing truthful reviews of online casinos to Finnish players. The process is explained here.
Unbiased reviews
Journalistic integrity is everything for a writer, and it becomes even more important if you review a product. As you surely know if you ever went to YouTube to see a review of a vacuum cleaner – they’re all amazing because the reviewer got money for the review. If the product is an online casino, then the stakes are even higher – excuse the pun. It is absolutely vital for a casino reviewer to be brutally honest and to tell the reader if the casino is good or not. This is how we do things at KasinoBonusIO.
Our reviews are not influenced by money, as you can read in our Advertising Disclosure. Some casinos may pay us to write about them, and we’ll do the work, but the casino can’t pay us to write good things about them. Each casino, paying or not, will always adhere to the same scrutiny and the same rules as described on this page.
The editorial team
The editorial team at KasinoBonusIO is led by editor-in-chief Matti Slotte, who has been on the gambling scene since the late 2000s when the market was just emerging.
The editorial promise
Matti promises that every casino review you read on KasinoBonusIO is unbiased, truthful, and dedicated to telling the Finnish player if it’s a good casino or not.
At the moment, in 2024, Finland is a closed monopoly system run by Veikkaus Oy. This opens the door to a lot of black market casinos, primarily those licensed in Curacao. Are they all bad? Certainly not. Things will greatly change in 2026 when the licensing system goes live. At that point, will the licensed casinos all be pure white while everyone else is pure black? Most certainly, that will not be the case.
This is why Matti and his team are dedicated to investigating each casino for what it is, regardless of the badge of the regulatory body that it pinned onto itself.
Three simple questions Matti asks
To make matters really simple, Matti and his editorial team are trained to see past the licences and all bells and whistles, and when they do a review, they ask three simple questions.
1. Does the casino pay the winners?
A simple question that so many casinos can’t answer positively. If you win big, you’re supposed to be paid by the casino. We don’t want to see a casino that delays payments, bans accounts, confiscates funds, uses small print against the player, voids bonus funds. This is the absolutely most important question for any casino. You go there in hope of winning, right? Well, then you’re expected to get paid if you do win. That’s the contract between you and the casino. We want casinos that honour that contract.
2. Is the game fair?
This question has two parts to it. One are the actual casino games that you play, and the other are the bonuses and everything else that you’re offered by the casino.
There are casino games that are more winnable than the others, and games that are known to produce a lot of winners. For example, high variance pokies with large maximum wins. Some casinos exclude them from their offer because they don’t want their bottom line to be affected by the game. They’d rather not have it. This is a sleazy move that Matti hates.
Furthermore, some game providers such as Pragmatic Play allow their games to be configurable by the casino. This allows the casino to change the RTP of the game. We test the RTP, in order to see what the casino’s decision here was. It’s usually universal – if a casino limits the RTP of their games to 95% then you’ll see it across the board. Likewise, if a casino sets the game to high payout, then they’ll do that for all games.
Finally, there’s the question of bonuses. The casino offers must come with a set of rules that would prevent bonus abuse, but there’s a fine line here. Some casinos have predatory terms that make it impossible for the bonus to be claimed. We’re not expecting free money, but we’re expecting the bonus to be attainable.
3. Does the casino pay fast?
Last but not least, we want a casino that pays fast. Not only because we lack patience in today’s fast-paced world, but because speed of payments is indicative of a casino that is concerned with the wellbeing of the players and that will always do other things right. Just ask Matti. He hasn’t yet seen a fast-paying casino that doesn’t also have quality customer support and quality bonus terms. If a casino pays fast, everything else is likely A+ with that casino.
The review process
This is the review process for every single casino review that is published on KasinoBonusIO. All writers adhere to this same process listed here.
Background research
We review the company information, check the licensing or lack thereof, look at sister casinos and their reputation, we check the key people and their reputation in the industry. We want to know who’s running this casino and what’s their agenda – to be fair towards the players or to steal money or something in between.
Good: The company has a long-standing reputation in the industry and is known to treat players fairly.
Bad: The company is known to be predatory towards the players, is known to close casinos, and is generally unwilling to pay the winners.
Legal matters
We carefully go through the Terms & Conditions of the casino. As we do that on a regular basis, we know how to recognize oddities that shouldn’t be there. When we find them, we will present them to our reader. These are most commonly found in bonus terms and conditions, and in attempting to hide the name of the company that is behind the casino.
Good: The terms are clear and concise, without fluff, without fine print and over explanation. They are fair towards the player and consistent with the industry norm.
Bad: The terms are overly complicated, include fine print, and include things that were introduced to be predatory towards the player.
Player consultation
We examine the player reviews and talk to players about the casino. We always focus the most on the experiences of Finnish players.
Good: The players report that they’re getting paid, and there are lots of Finnish people that say the same.
Bad: A lot of the players report that they had an issue getting paid by the casino, or that they had their accounts closed.
Payment speed and ease
The most important aspect of any casino is how fast it pays and what payment options are available. Ideally, all the Finnish local payment options that we use should be available, PayPal too as this is a rare one among unlicensed casinos, and generally the process should be as streamlined as possible.
Good: The payment process is so streamlined that the same-day payouts are the norm.
Bad: The casino has a pending period for all payments, and then requests additional verification documents to delay the payments further.
Games available
The offer of games will vary between different casinos, and ideally we want to see all the top providers as well as the most popular games in Finland. The games also need to be set to high payout if they’re configurable, and we want the games in which you can win big, and the progressive jackpots too.
Good: All the providers that should be there are there, including Finland’s favourite ones, and the games are set to high payouts.
Bad: Some notable providers are missing and/or the casino has games by unknown providers. The games are set to predatory RTP.
User experience
The website should be easy to use on desktop or any mobile device. This is most commonly found in newer casinos while some older ones retain their legacy design that isn’t as good. So this isn’t as much of a big deal for most people.
Good: Streamlined design with a good UX.
Bad: Clunky design that doesn’t work well on mobile.
Our Reviews in Numbers
- No. of live accounts for each casino review 1
- No. of experts consulted about each casino 2
- No. of team members who work on the review 3+
- No. of NZ players consulted about each casino 5+
- Total team experience in the casino industry 30+ years
- Average playing time for review purposes 8 hours
- No. of games tested 20+
- Average deposit per casino review €20
- Average withdrawal per casino review €0-€100
Our Step-by-Step Casino Review Publishing Process
- We register a new player account at the casino and verify the account.
- We examine the bonus offers and the procedure for claiming the bonuses.
- We contact the customer support with some questions about the bonus or the payments, noting how knowledgeable and helpful the support staff was, and how long it took them to respond.
- We make a deposit using one of the payment methods and note the payment speed and ease.
- We claim the bonus and note how the process went.
- We navigate the website on desktop and mobile devices, to test the responsiveness and usability for both desktop PC and mobile users.
- We examine the games offered by the casino and count the providers and the games, noting which ones are there, and which should be there but aren’t present.
- We play 10-20 various games from various sections of the casino that are representative of the casino offer as a whole. We use third-party tools and our own playing experience to determine if the games pay well or not. We play for real money.
- We meet the bonus playthrough requirements, if possible, and we talk about the process.
- We pass the customer verification and note how the process went, how long it took, and what documents were requested by the casino.
- We make a withdrawal if there are funds in our account, and note the speed and ease of the process.
- We make a background check of the company behind the casino.
- Our team reads all the Terms & Conditions, noting the ones that stand out and that might be important for the player.
- We consult other Finnish players via forums to learn more about their experience at the casino, and have a look at any complaints that may have arisen against the casino in the past.
- We compile all the information from the 14 steps above to produce a thorough written review of the casino. We put important information in boxes so they’re easy to read.
- The review is edited by two different members of the staff, and is published on KasinoBonus.io together with screenshots that were made during the casino playing phase.
How To Use Our Expert Casino Reviews
- Read all of them.
- Listen to what is being said, pay attention to the player’s experience and comments.
- Take the legal matters seriously, especially when it comes to bonuses, account verification and payouts.
- Apply the review to your own personal preferences when it comes to games and payment methods.
- Check the advantages and disadvantages of the casino and see which matter more to you personally.
Written by Matti Slotte