CM Announcement Ratings revision now in progress

[maxd]

SO! As many of you know we have been promising to revisit and revise our Casinomeister Ratings for some time now.
We weren’t actually able to make much progress on that due to the migration of the site to Gentoo’s company-wide CMS but that migration was completed a couple weeks ago.
As soon as that was announced we — by that I mean me from the Forums with several of the fine folk from Gentoo — jumped in to tackle one of the first things we had on our ToDo list for post-migration: our Ratings system.

Now, some of you may recall that the one-and-only @dunover had done a fair bit of work on this whole issue a year or more ago. It was this week that for the first time I was able to include those proposals with other feedback on the forum and put that all forward for consideration.

I’m happy to report that good progress was made. Tentatively — I repeat, tentatively as we can’t and won’t be held to this ‘cause things change eh? — we’re looking at something like this:

• peel off Jurisdiction from the overall Rating, present that as a standalone number based on a fixed ranking of applicable jurisdictions.
• boost the weight of some metrics we know that players particularly care about, for example Payment Times and Initial Bonus Offers.
• significantly increase the weight of the Response to Complaints factor, though the mechanism for that is still TBD.
• provide some kind of easily viewable breakdown of the final Rating given, eg a pop-up or suchlike, so anyone at any time can see where the numbers come from.
• aim for a largely automated Rating system (based on data gathered from the casino) with a small factor left for discretionary weighting (eg. long term and trusted casino, highly active forum rep, etc)

So that’s where things currently stand.

You know what’s coming next, don’t you? Anything we obviously missed?
Anything scream “git yer head out of yer a** Max!"
As ever, let us know in the comments below. (oops, UTube speak! ) Let us know in your reply posts below.

 

[pereblue]

Fantastic newd @maxd!! I hope communiy feedback could be also a part of the rating ... Are yo going to keep a separate user rating vs cm rating?.

 

[pereblue]

I will also suggest to include some way to.compare historical rating ...to show a cm tracking rating system, this could also help to the users to see the evolution of th brand (eg.a x casino during 2021 got a cm revision and improved their cm rating +0.1 due to an increase of xx points fr better payment speed ) this kind of signal will benefit user understanding + Cm website showing a EEAT signal
..just saying

 

[maxd]

Hey Pere, thank you for dropping by. And great suggestions.

1. Yes, User Ratings are planned to be separate and distinct from the CM Rating. Full User Ratings are going to come a little later, we want to base it on the new CM Ratings once we see how they do, though a User feedback system is planned for earlier in the process.

2. Historic data: that is a truly superb idea! Big fat for that one my friend! Adding that to our Wishlist asap.

 

[paul7388]

Think there is a big problem with using historic ratings. Let's face it as people keep pointing out the ratings just now don't reflect how bad casinos are compared to what their official rating is. Also there's probably some casinos that are rated lower than they should be compared to higher rated casinos that aren't as good.

But some of casinos are decent enough just not great enough to be so highly rated. But if you then drop them from say a 9 to a 7 which considering all the factors might be more accurate. People will then see the casinos rating has dropped so much from previous ratings and must be going downhill which isn't really fair on casino if its not changed.

Would think it would be better just to guve casino a rating. Reasons why its rated such and a review. Don't think any need to say it used to be so much higher.

Also works the other way. If a casino has rating improved drastically it looks like casino has got much better when in reality it hasn't. Still same casino. If you think its a 9.5 casino why the need to mention it used to only score 6.8.

 

[pereblue]

@paul7388 That's a very good point, and I agree that a change in the rating methodology shouldn't be presented as if the casino itself had improved or declined.
What I had in mind is more of a CM Rating Timeline rather than simply keeping old ratings. The introduction of the new CM Rating system could establish a new baseline, and the timeline would track significant rating changes from that point onwards using the same methodology.
E.g:
Aug 2026 — 7.8
New CM Rating baseline
Nov 2026 — 8.1 ↑
Faster withdrawal times.
Feb 2027 — 7.6 ↓
Increase in unresolved complaints
....

So the idea isn't just to show that "this casino used to be a 9 and now it's a 7". It's to provide context around how and why the casino's rating has evolved over time.
Two casinos could both have an 8.5 rating today, but one may have consistently performed around that level for years while another has moved 9.0 → 7.0 → 8.5.
The current rating tells you where the casino is today.The CM Rating Timeline tells you how it got there.
I think CM's long-term knowledge of operators, complaints and player issues puts it in a particularly strong position to provide that context.

Salut!

 

[paul7388]

@paul7388 That's a very good point, and I agree that a change in the rating methodology shouldn't be presented as if the casino itself had improved or declined.
What I had in mind is more of a CM Rating Timeline rather than simply keeping old ratings. The introduction of the new CM Rating system could establish a new baseline, and the timeline would track significant rating changes from that point onwards using the same methodology.
E.g:
Aug 2026 — 7.8
New CM Rating baseline
Nov 2026 — 8.1 ↑
Faster withdrawal times.
Feb 2027 — 7.6 ↓
Increase in unresolved complaints
....

So the idea isn't just to show that "this casino used to be a 9 and now it's a 7". It's to provide context around how and why the casino's rating has evolved over time.
Two casinos could both have an 8.5 rating today, but one may have consistently performed around that level for years while another has moved 9.0 → 7.0 → 8.5.
The current rating tells you where the casino is today.The CM Rating Timeline tells you how it got there.
I think CM's long-term knowledge of operators, complaints and player issues puts it in a particularly strong position to provide that context.

Salut!

Thanks for explaining. And I get what you are saying and the reasons for it.

I was meaning more the casinos that were never rated correctly in first place. As has been asked many times how can a casino get so.much higher rating than casinos that are obviously better.

So if its decided a casino is rated too high and it should be lower its rating will accurately reflect that. But there's no timeline in such a case as the casino is exactly same as two years ago. Nothing has changed just never should have been rated so high or maybe low in first place.

 

[Wait!What?]

I know its too much work for you guys but will the rtp affect the ratings. For example add +1 or +2 in ratings if more than 50% of slots are above 96%.
I believe this is too much to ask but would like to know if its possible.

 

[SCATT3R]

@maxd
I would like to see user comments/rating enabled below each casino review. It would invite a lot of nonsense 10/10's of course but not if there were certain criterias for who could make their comments there - like only registered CM users for starters.
I've personally played in more than 100 casinos so I'm sure I have some experiences to share which might be helpful.

Edit: Sorry, I just realised this was already adressed above. Dunno how I missed those posts.

 

[teckiwi]

I assume it's unlikely but what I like about other platforms that offer the casino reviews is that you can view player disputes and the resolution(if there is one), I think it allows the player to get an idea for how the casino responds to disputes(or if they don't at all). ie are alot of the disputes about the bonus terms that are worse than they appear in the review, is the casino actively delaying payments etc which might offer insight into solvency and if my money is safe there etc.

 

[satchnz]

I know its too much work for you guys but will the rtp affect the ratings. For example add +1 or +2 in ratings if more than 50% of slots are above 96%.
I believe this is too much to ask but would like to know if its possible.

This is something that I raised shortly after joining CM. But in reality it's a very tough ask. The RTP part of the ratings would be valid for that point in time. Unfortunately it would be a massive undertaking to keep this info up to date with operators continuing to opt for lower RTP versions of slots.

Other factors contributing to a casino's rating should be a bit more dynamic. Like a casino that holds up customer withdrawals due to performing "enhanced checks" but still let's those players continue to deposit and play. This should damage a licensed casino's rating.