About us
Five people keep this ranking honest. Imogen Karamea runs the desk and signs every scorecard; Bramwell Taipa times payouts, Solene Kaimai works through pokie lobbies and studio catalogues, Torvald Waimarama checks licence registers, and Nuala Otaki reads the bonus terms nobody else finishes. We publish from Christchurch and we write for Kiwis paying in New Zealand dollars, nobody else.
Every brand on the front page went through the same routine. An account is opened with real documents, a deposit lands through POLi or a card, the balance is played down, and a withdrawal goes in with the request time written against it. Whatever the cashier does next is written up as it happened, slow results included.
Seven measures decide the order: the regulator behind the licence, whether Kiwi sign-ups go through unchallenged, the payment menu, NZD handling, verified withdrawal speed, the phone experience, and how plainly the wagering terms are written. Payout speed carries the most weight because that is what readers write to us about.
A few of the operators pay us when someone signs up after following a link here. That money buys placement from nobody. Scores follow the measurements, so a brand whose payouts start slipping loses ground the same week we notice it.