About BonusWise: Who We Are and How We Test

BonusWise is a small, independent Australian guide to online casinos, pokies, bonuses and payments. We test offshore sites with our own money, write up what actually happens, and try to be the mate who tells you the fine print before you sign up rather than after. We’re based in Queensland, and we’d rather talk you out of a bad deposit than into one.

Who’s behind BonusWise

I’m Tess Marlowe, editor-in-chief, based in Brisbane. Before this, I spent eight years in gaming-room compliance at Queensland clubs and pubs: responsible service of gambling, venue audits, checking signage, sitting through incident reports at 1am. I saw the fun side of pokies and the other side too. That mix is why I review the way I do.

When online casinos started showing up in every second conversation at the club, I got curious and started testing them myself. The more I looked, the more I noticed that most “review” sites were just lists of whoever paid the most. BonusWise started as my notes and grew from there.

Nick Faulkner is our fact-checker. He’s the one who reads the whole T&C document, rechecks timestamps from my tests, confirms RTP numbers in game info screens and emails me at 7am to say a bonus cap changed overnight. If a number is on this site, Nick has seen it.

How we test casinos

We sign up like any other punter, using our own details and our own money. Deposits are small on purpose, usually $20 to $50, because that’s what most of our readers actually put in. Then we play, try to clear a bonus if there is one, and request a withdrawal. The clock starts when I hit the button and stops when the money lands in my bank or wallet.

We also check licence details against the regulator’s register, look at how the site handles KYC, contact support with real questions, and read the withdrawal rules line by line. You can see how that plays out in posts like I timed 30 PayID withdrawals and how I spot a rogue casino.

How we make money

Straight answer: affiliate commissions. When you click a link on our site and sign up at a casino, we may get paid by that casino, sometimes a one-off fee, sometimes a share of revenue. That’s how we pay for test deposits, hosting and Nick’s coffee habit.

What commissions don’t buy is ranking. We don’t sell top spots. Sites are ordered by our test results: payout speed, how fair the terms are, how support treated us, and whether the licence checks out. A casino that pays us well but held a withdrawal for nine days without explanation drops down the list, or off it. We’ve pulled sites that were earning us money because they stopped paying players properly.

Our editorial principles

• Honest about the law Online casinos aren’t licensed in Australia. We say that clearly and never pretend otherwise. See our safe casinos guide for what that means.
• Real tests, real numbers If we give a withdrawal time, it came from a stopwatch. Personal results are labelled “in our tests”.
• Caveats up front Wagering, caps, max bet rules and fees go in the review, not buried at the bottom.
• No pressure We never tell anyone they should gamble. Our responsible gambling page is linked from every page for a reason.
• Corrections When we get something wrong, we fix it and update the date.

We only write for adults, 18 and over. We don’t name or promote casinos that target minors, and we don’t accept paid articles dressed up as reviews.

If you ever think we’ve got something wrong, tell us. Half our best fixes came from readers who tested a site after us and noticed a change.

Contact us

Questions, corrections, a casino that’s treating you badly, or just want to say g’day? Use the form below and one of us will get back to you, usually within a couple of business days. We can’t resolve disputes on a casino’s behalf, but we can tell you what we know and update our review if a site is misbehaving. For how we handle your details, read our privacy policy.