Editorial Policy

1. Our Editorial Principles

Every piece of content on PokieLadder is written to the following six principles:

1. Primary-source checking. Licensing claims, bonus terms, payout times and game counts are verified against operator-side documentation or AU regulatory sources before publication.
2. Plain English. Content targets readers who are unfamiliar with gambling jargon. Terms like RTP, wagering requirement, volatility and KYC are defined on first use.
3. Specific over generic. Where we can quote a specific figure (median withdrawal time in hours, wagering multiplier in x, game count from provider), we do. "Fast payouts" and "generous bonuses" without numbers are editorial red flags.
4. Balanced, not neutral. Neutrality for its own sake can hide real differences between casinos. We call out strengths and weaknesses on every review; we decline to write reviews we cannot substantiate.
5. Responsible gambling built in. Every review, answer page and guide includes 18+ messaging and visible links to Responsible Gambling resources. This is non-negotiable.
6. No "the best" without basis. We avoid absolute superlatives ("the best casino in Australia", "the fastest payouts ever") unless they can be substantiated against our eight-dimension rubric. Rankings are typically expressed as "strongest in X among the reviewed set".

2. Brand Inclusion Criteria

We do not review every casino that exists, nor every new casino that launches. To be added to our review set, a casino must:

• Accept real-money play from Australian residents aged 18+;
• Operate under a recognised international gaming licence (Curaçao, Malta, Anjouan, UK Gambling Commission, or equivalent);
• Publish clear bonus terms including wagering requirements, maximum bet caps and eligible games;
• Offer at least one AU-friendly deposit method (PayID, bank transfer, Speedpay, card, or major crypto);
• Offer at least one AU-friendly withdrawal method with published processing times;
• Provide customer support in English, with published response SLAs;
• Support self-exclusion and deposit limits accessible from the player account area.

Casinos that do not meet these baseline criteria are not added to the review set, regardless of any commercial arrangement. We remove casinos from the set if they subsequently fail a criterion meaningfully — typically a systemic withdrawal issue, a licence issue, or a loss of AU access.

3. Review Research Process

Every new review follows the same nine-step workflow:

1. Sign up for a real player account using a personal AU identity.
2. Complete KYC documentation and log the processing time.
3. Make a representative minimum deposit using an AU payment method; log the time-to-credit.
4. Play a cross-section of pokies (classic, Megaways, jackpot, AU-popular franchise).
5. Claim any welcome bonus and read the fine print in full.
6. Test livechat during AU business hours and after hours; log response times.
7. Request a withdrawal at a representative amount; log the time to clear.
8. Cross-check operator claims (licence, RTP, supplier list) against primary sources.
9. Score the casino against the eight-dimension rubric and draft the review.

Where we cannot perform a step directly (for example, a closed-audit operator that does not publish an RTP sheet), we note the limitation in the review rather than filling it with operator-supplied claims.

4. Who Writes the Reviews

Reviews are written or commissioned by PokieLadder's editorial team, which consists of Australian-based writers with experience in consumer finance, gaming and online consumer journalism. We do not accept operator-authored guest content, sponsored posts, or AI-generated content without substantial human review. If we ever publish a piece with an external byline, the byline will be visible and the commercial basis disclosed inline.

5. Update Cadence

Reviews are reviewed on the following cadence:

• Bonus terms and payout times: checked monthly; updated within 14 days of a material change.
• Licence and compliance status: checked quarterly; updated immediately on a known material change (licence suspension, major regulatory action).
• Game library and supplier count: refreshed quarterly.
• Full review re-audit: annually, or sooner if reader reports prompt it.

The "Last updated" date on each review reflects the most recent editorial review — not the most recent bot pass.

6. Corrections Policy

For material factual corrections (e.g. a wrong withdrawal time that affected scoring), we add a visible "Updated" note to the top of the review page noting what was changed and when. We do not silently edit scores.

7. Commercial Influence

Our scoring methodology is applied identically to every casino in the review set, regardless of commercial relationship. Specifically:

• Casinos cannot pay us to increase their score;
• Casinos cannot buy premium placement on the home page — rankings are score-driven;
• Casinos do not see a review before publication;
• A shareholder interest in a group of casinos held by a person connected to the Site is fully disclosed on the Affiliate Disclosure page, and on each affected review page.

We include reviews of non-paying reference casinos to provide like-for-like comparisons — clearly marked as reference-scope.

8. Reader Feedback

We read all editorial feedback sent to editorial@pokieladder.com. We do not publish reader reviews on individual casino pages at this time (to avoid astroturfing). We do, however, use aggregated reader reports as input into the next review audit — and we will note when a review has been revised in response to reader feedback.

9. Sources and Citations

Where a claim in a review depends on an external source, we link to that source directly rather than paraphrasing it. Preferred primary sources include the operator's licence page, the issuing regulator, official game provider documentation, and Australian government resources (ACMA, BetStop). We do not cite other review sites as primary sources for factual claims.

10. AI Usage

We use AI tools for research assistance, proofreading and structural drafting. We do not publish AI-generated content as-is. Every published page is read, fact-checked and signed off by a human editor before publication. Our ai.txt file explicitly welcomes AI search/answer engines to index and cite our content, subject to the attribution preferences documented there.

11. Legal Review

Compliance-sensitive pages (Privacy, Terms, Affiliate Disclosure, Responsible Gambling) are reviewed against Australian consumer law, ACCC guidance and the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 on at least an annual basis, or sooner if a material legislative change occurs.

12. Amendments to This Policy

This editorial policy is itself subject to change. The "Last updated" date reflects the most recent revision. Material changes will be flagged on the home page for at least 14 days.

This policy is a public commitment. If our actual practice ever diverges from what is written here, readers are invited — and encouraged — to hold us to account at editorial@pokieladder.com.