Our standards
Editorial Policy
Last updated: 26 June 2026
Every review on Joe Fortune is created to a fixed standard built for accuracy, independence and usefulness. This page explains how we research, test, fact-check and update our content — and how we keep commercial deals out of editorial decisions.
Our editorial principles
All content on Joe Fortune follows four principles: factual accuracy, independence from advertisers, transparency with readers, and currency of information. We know our reviews shape real financial decisions — whether to register, deposit or claim a bonus — and that responsibility drives how we work. Every review and rating comes from real testing, never from a press release or a casino's marketing pack. Our editorial process is applied consistently to all review sections — including the welcome bonus guide, pokies catalogue, live casino review, banking guide, crypto payments, withdrawal guide, mobile review, VIP program, promotions and sister sites.
How we create content
1. Selection. We don't review every casino going. We choose based on a valid licence, availability to Australian players, relevance to our readers, and complaint history. A casino with no licence or a fraud record won't get a normal review — at most a black-list warning.
2. Real testing. The author personally runs the full cycle: register, verify, deposit, play, claim and clear a bonus, request a withdrawal, get paid. This takes three to ten business days with real money — never demo mode. Full method: How We Test.
3. Writing. The same person who tested writes the review, so the text reflects first-hand experience rather than rehashed sources. The author is free in their conclusions and scores.
4. Fact-checking. Before publishing, an editor verifies the licence number and status on the regulator's site, the bonus terms (amount, wagering, max bet, game restrictions) on the casino's own site, the listed game providers, and the available payment methods and fees. Discrepancies are resolved before publication.
5. Publication. The review goes live with the author's name (linked to the Mitch Calloway profile), a publication date and a score from our How We Rate system.
6. Updates. Reviews aren't static. We revise them when bonus terms change, when a licence or owner changes, when payment methods change, when serious complaints appear, and on a scheduled basis every three to six months — always dating the latest change.
Fact-checking sources
We verify against primary sources. Licences are checked on the regulator's own register — for offshore operators, the Curacao Gaming Authority, and for the Australian market context, the ACMA. We confirm not just that a licence exists but its status and the licence-holder. Bonus terms are read in full — including the fine print — from the casino's own Terms page: wagering, max bet during play, game weightings and expiry. Game providers are checked in the casino lobby, payment methods in the cashier after registration, and player complaints on independent platforms such as AskGamblers, Casino Guru and Trustpilot, where we look for patterns rather than one-off cases.
Editorial independence
Editorial decisions are based only on a casino's quality, the test results and our method. No casino, affiliate network or advertiser can change a score, the content of a review or the order casinos appear in. Commercial relationships and the editorial process are strictly separated — detail in our Affiliate Disclosure. If a casino demands a "guaranteed" positive review as a condition of partnership, we decline, and we never remove a negative review on request.
Corrections policy
We aim for accuracy, but mistakes happen. If you spot one, email [email protected]. When we receive a report we verify it within 48 hours; if confirmed, we fix the content, and for material corrections we add a note ("Updated [date]: corrected information on [topic]"). We don't quietly delete content — if a review changes substantially, we say why, and we mark reviews that have gone out of date (bonus ended, casino closed).
Author standards
Every Joe Fortune author must have several years' hands-on iGaming experience, must personally test a casino before reviewing it (no second-hand reviews), must disclose any conflict of interest, and must publish under a real name linked to a profile. Anonymous reviews are not published. Read more about who we are on About Us, our scoring on How We Rate, or reach us via Contact Us.