A small site with one job
Stakes and Spades compares casino sites licensed to operate in Britain. That is the whole remit — no games, no accounts, no involvement in play of any kind.
We are an independent editorial project, not a gambling company. Nobody here holds a gambling licence, and nothing on this site accepts a stake, holds a balance or touches anyone's money. When you follow a link from a card on our front page you leave for the operator's own site, and everything after that is between you and them.
The brand name is a plain description of the subject: stakes, and the suit on the cards. We picked it because it says what the site is about without pretending to be a casino.
What we actually do
The site exists because comparing British casinos is harder than it should be. Most listings rank on the size of the welcome offer, which tells you almost nothing about whether you will enjoy using a site for six months. We rank on what is in the lobby instead — how far the game range spreads and how serious the live-dealer section is — and publish the working so you can disagree with the weighting.
The shortlist currently runs to six operators. That is deliberate. A page listing ninety sites is a directory, and a directory is no use when you are trying to choose one.
Where the money comes from
Affiliate commission, and nothing else. If you open an account with an operator after following one of our links, that operator may pay us a fee. There is no subscription, no advertising sold by the inch, and no paid placement.
The part that matters is what commission does not buy. No operator on this site has been given a higher score for paying more, none has seen a review before it went live, and none has the ability to remove a criticism. Grosvenor sits at the top of our table because of what is in its lobby, and Midnite sits at the bottom for reasons we spell out on its scorecard. If a commercial arrangement ever conflicted with a score, the score would win — that is the only version of this business worth running.
The full arrangement is set out on the affiliate disclosure page.
Four things you won't find here
Our own limits, in plain terms
- No invented numbers. No precise game counts, no user review totals, no "thousands of players trust us". If we cannot check a figure, it does not go on the page — which is why our credibility strip uses round, clearly approximate numbers.
- No testimonials. We have no way to verify a stranger's account of a session, so we don't publish any. Reviews on this site are ours, and we sign our reasoning rather than borrow someone else's.
- No payments coverage. Deposits, withdrawals and payout times sit outside what this site is for. Plenty of places write about that; we would rather do one thing properly.
- No urgency. No countdown clocks, no "claim before it's gone", no language dressing a bonus up as free money. British advertising rules forbid most of it, and the rest is simply a bad way to talk to people about money.
Who this site is for, and who it isn't
It is for adults in the UK who already gamble occasionally and want to pick a site on something more solid than a banner. If you are choosing between two casinos and want to know which one takes live dealer seriously, this is a useful ten minutes.
It is not for anyone hoping to find an edge. Casino games are built with a margin for the house, and no ranking on this site changes the odds of anything. If you came looking for a system, the most useful thing we can tell you is that there isn't one.
And it is not for anyone whose gambling has stopped feeling like a choice. If that is where you are, the support page is more relevant than any comparison we publish, and GamCare's helpline on 0808 8020 133 is free and open at any hour.
Corrections
Operators change their lobbies without telling anyone. If something on this site is out of date or plainly wrong, tell us and we will check it and change it — the date at the top of each page moves when the content does. The contact page has the address.