Our Mission
Kiwi Casinos exists to help Kiwi players make informed decisions about online casinos. The NZ market is flooded with generic review sites that rank casinos based on advertising deals rather than genuine quality. We take a different approach — every casino on our site has been tested with real money, real deposits, and real withdrawals by our Auckland-based team.
We believe New Zealand players deserve honest, transparent, and locally relevant casino information. Our reviews are written for Kiwis by Kiwis, addressing the specific needs of the NZ market: NZD support, payment methods that work with NZ banks, appropriate time zone support, and compliance with New Zealand gambling regulations.
Our Review Process
Every online casino on Kiwi Casinos goes through our structured review process:
- Licensing Verification — We verify the casino's licence with the issuing authority. No valid licence, no review.
- Account Registration — We sign up as a regular NZ player. No special reviewer accounts or preferential treatment.
- Real-Money Deposit — We deposit a minimum of $50 NZD using at least two different payment methods.
- Gameplay Testing — We play for a minimum of 3 hours across pokies, table games, and live dealer games.
- Bonus Analysis — We claim the welcome bonus and analyse every term: wagering requirements, game contributions, time limits, and withdrawal caps.
- Customer Support Testing — We contact support via live chat and email with genuine questions, rating response time and quality.
- Withdrawal Processing — We submit a real withdrawal and time the entire process from request to funds in our account.
- Mobile Testing — We test the entire experience on iPhone and Android devices.
- KYC Verification — We complete the full identity verification process using NZ documents.
- Ongoing Monitoring — We re-test every recommended casino quarterly to ensure standards are maintained.
Our Team
Craig Brown
Craig grew up in Devonport on Auckland's North Shore before crossing the bridge to study journalism at AUT. After four years writing sports and tech content for a Ponsonby-based digital agency, he discovered online casinos through a friend's recommendation in 2020. What began as the occasional Friday night pokies session quickly evolved into a genuine passion for testing platforms, comparing bonus mathematics, and documenting every withdrawal. He now reviews online casinos full-time from his flat in Ponsonby, where he balances his screen time with morning runs along the waterfront and weekend trips to Piha. He is known among his circle for being the person everyone texts before signing up at a casino site — he has strong opinions about wagering requirements and will not recommend any platform he has not personally deposited at and withdrawn from.
Editorial Independence
Kiwi Casinos earns revenue through affiliate partnerships with online casinos. When you click a link on our site and register at a casino, we may receive a commission. This is standard practice in the casino review industry and is how we fund our real-money testing.
Crucially, this does not influence our reviews or rankings. We have declined partnerships with casinos that failed our testing process. We have lowered rankings of paying partners when their quality declined. Our recommendations are based on testing results, not commercial relationships.
Every page on this site includes affiliate disclosure. We are transparent about how we earn revenue because we believe trust is more valuable than any single commission.