About Us
Non Gamstop Casinos is a UK-facing research site about casinos not on GamStop. This page explains who produces the material on oftimeandthecity.com, how the rankings are built, where the money comes from, and — just as importantly — what our ratings cannot tell you. If you are trying to judge whether a comparison site is worth trusting before you act on its list, that is what this page is for.
What we publish and why
Every casino covered here is licensed outside Great Britain and therefore sits outside the UK Gambling Commission's scheme, which is why it is not connected to GAMSTOP. That single fact changes a great deal: the bonus rules are looser, the wagering requirements are often heavier, the payment options differ, and the complaints route if something goes wrong is not the British one. Readers arrive with the same three questions again and again — what is the offer really worth, how do I get paid, and who regulates this. Our job is to answer those in plain English rather than repeat marketing copy.
We write for adults of 18 or over. We do not present gambling as income, we do not describe any operator as completely safe, and we do not promise that a withdrawal will be paid. If you have registered with GAMSTOP, the responsible course is to let the exclusion run to its end; our responsible gambling guidance sets out the support available in the UK, including GamCare and blocking software.
How we make money, stated plainly
Some links on oftimeandthecity.com are commercial. If you open an account through one, the publisher may receive a commission from the operator. That funding pays for the research and keeps the site free to read.
Commission does not buy a position. Rankings, editorial ratings and criticism are set before any commercial discussion and are not altered on request. An operator that pays nothing can outrank one that pays well, and a paying operator still gets its limitations written up. Where we are unsure of a fact — a licence detail, a payout window, a bonus term — we say so rather than filling the gap.
How casinos are assessed
There is no testing claim behind any rating on this site. We do not deposit, play or withdraw. What we do is read published terms, licence pages, payment pages and support documentation, then compare them against each other and record the date. Findings on this page were last checked on 23 September 2026.
The factors we weigh, in rough order of influence on the score:
- Bonus terms behind the headline. Wagering multiple, whether it applies to bonus only or deposit plus bonus, game contribution rates, maximum bet while a bonus is live, expiry date and any cap on what can be cashed out from bonus winnings.
- Payments for British customers. Whether GBP accounts are offered, which debit card, bank transfer, e-wallet or cryptocurrency routes are actually available from the UK, stated fees, and whether currency conversion applies.
- Withdrawals. Published processing times, daily, weekly and monthly limits, and how KYC and source-of-funds checks are described.
- Games and providers. The spread across slots, live dealer tables, blackjack, roulette and baccarat, plus which software studios are named and whether RTP is published.
- Transparency and support. How clearly the operator states its licence and ownership, what the complaints procedure is, and which responsible gambling tools — deposit limits, loss limits, self-exclusion — exist on the account.
Ratings are editorial opinions from that review work. They are not customer-review scores, and they are not a prediction of your experience.
Three of the operators we rank, and what we would flag
Below are the top three in our current list. The full ordered set, with each headline offer, appears on the main non GamStop casinos comparison.
Betmica — the largest headline package we list
Betmica holds the top position and our 10.0 editorial rating, largely because its welcome offer is advertised in sterling and structured across a percentage match plus spins rather than a single lump. The advertised offer is 570% up to £5,700 plus 270 free spins, and the material conditions sit with it: a match of that size is normally released in tranches across several deposits, carries a wagering requirement, a maximum stake per spin while bonus funds are active, and an expiry window. New customers only, 18+.
The limitation: a headline in the thousands is a ceiling, not an expectation. Reaching anything near £5,700 in bonus credit requires deposits most readers will never make, and the higher the match, the heavier the playthrough tends to be. Read the bonus terms and the cashout cap before the first deposit, not after.
Kikibet — sterling pricing with a spins-led offer
Kikibet earns 9.9 for pricing its welcome package in pounds and pairing a 350% match up to £5,555 with 300 free spins. For a reader who prefers spins over a large cash match, a 300-spin allocation is a more usable entry point, since spins usually carry their own — sometimes lower — wagering terms and a stated value per spin. New customers only, 18+, wagering and expiry apply.
The limitation: free spin bonuses frequently restrict you to one named slot and cap the winnings you can convert. Check both figures, and check whether the spins release in daily batches rather than all at once, which extends the time you have to complete wagering but also spreads it out.
Betninja — the flatter, more legible offer
Betninja also rates 9.9, and it is here for a different reason from the two above: its advertised £1,000 bonus and 100 free spins for all new players is a smaller, simpler package, which usually means fewer moving parts to get wrong. Readers who find tiered 500%-plus packages hard to evaluate often get better value from something they can actually calculate.
The limitation: a modest headline still tells you nothing about the wagering multiple, and "all new players" is not the same as all eligible players — country restrictions, minimum deposit and qualifying payment methods still apply. Confirm that UK registration is accepted before committing anything.
Comparing what is advertised
The table below shows only the advertised headline offers and our editorial ratings. It is not a value ranking — the wagering requirement decides that, and it varies by operator.
| Casino | Advertised welcome offer | Currency of the headline | Editorial rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Betmica | 570% up to £5,700 + 270 free spins | GBP | 10.0 |
| Kikibet | 350% up to £5,555 + 300 free spins | GBP | 9.9 |
| Betninja | £1,000 bonus + 100 free spins | GBP | 9.9 |
| WinnerIsland | Up to €1,000 + 100 free spins | EUR | 9.8 |
| Zombillion | 250% up to £4,000 + 200 free spins | GBP | 9.7 |
| Smash Casino | 600% up to €10,000 slots package | EUR | 9.7 |
| Nightluck | 805% up to €6,400 + 280 free spins | EUR | 9.7 |
| CoinPoker | 150% up to $2,000 | USD | 9.7 |
| Rivo | 1000% up to €10,000 + 25% cashback | EUR | 9.6 |
| Daytonaspin | 255% up to £4,500 + 255 free spins | GBP | 9.6 |
All offers are for new customers aged 18 or over, subject to wagering requirements, minimum deposits, maximum bonus bets, expiry dates and cashout caps set by the operator. Terms change without notice; the operator's own page is the authority.
The money side we always check
Costs start with the minimum deposit, which on sites of this type commonly sits in the £10 to £20 range but is set individually. Beyond that, four things decide what a bonus is worth:
- Wagering requirement. A 40x requirement on a £100 bonus means £4,000 of qualifying stakes before withdrawal. Applied to deposit plus bonus, the same multiple doubles the work.
- Game contribution. Slots usually count 100%; roulette, blackjack and baccarat often count 10% or not at all. Clearing wagering on table games can be effectively impossible.
- Maximum bonus bet. A cap of around £5 per spin is typical. Exceeding it can void the bonus and any winnings from it.
- Cashout limit. Some offers, particularly no-deposit ones, cap conversion at a fixed sum regardless of what you win.
On payments, the honest position is that availability varies by operator and changes. Debit cards and bank transfers are the common routes for UK customers; e-wallets appear frequently; PayPal is rarely offered by operators outside the British licensing scheme, so treat it as something to verify rather than assume. Cryptocurrency is accepted by some sites — CoinPoker, for instance, prices its offer in dollars, which tells you the base currency is not sterling. Where the account is held in euros or dollars, a card or bank conversion fee typically applies at both deposit and withdrawal, and that spread is a real cost people forget to count.
Withdrawal timings differ by method: e-wallets and crypto are generally the quickest once approved, cards slower, bank transfers slowest. Every route sits behind identity verification. Expect to supply photo ID, proof of address and, for larger sums, source-of-funds evidence. Submitting documents early usually shortens the first payout; leaving it until you win usually lengthens it.
What is actually in these casinos
Coverage on this site spans the categories readers ask about:
- Slots — the bulk of every library, from low-volatility spinners to high-variance titles, with published RTP where the operator discloses it.
- Progressive jackpots — pooled prizes that grow across a network, usually with a stake condition to qualify.
- Table games — blackjack, roulette and baccarat in software form, typically the lowest-contributing category for wagering.
- Live dealer rooms — streamed tables with human croupiers, which need a stable connection and often carry higher minimum stakes.
- Mobile play — browser-based in most cases rather than an app; we note where the lobby is genuinely usable on a phone.
The sportsbook running alongside
Several operators in this list run a betting product beside the casino, and it behaves differently. Sportsbooks offer pre-match and in-play markets, accumulators, bet builders, cash-out and esports, with free bets rather than deposit matches as the usual promotion. Free bets normally carry minimum qualifying odds — 1.80 or 2.00 in decimal terms is common — and the stake is not returned with winnings. Where a shared wallet covers casino and sportsbook, funds move between them freely, but bonus funds usually do not: a casino bonus generally cannot be cleared on sport, and the reverse is equally true. Check which product a promotion belongs to before you stake.
Legal standing, and what it means for you
Casinos not on GamStop hold licences from overseas regulators rather than the UK Gambling Commission. Curaçao is the most common jurisdiction; others appear too. An overseas licence is a real licence, but its consumer protections, dispute procedures and advertising standards are not the British ones, and GAMSTOP registration does not reach them because GAMSTOP is a condition of the Commission's own licences.
Two distinctions matter. First, accepting British customers is not the same as being authorised to serve the British market — operators can do the former without the latter. Second, the Gambling Commission's remit covers Great Britain; Northern Ireland has its own gambling legislation. Nothing on this site is legal advice.
What follows for you as a reader: you must be 18 or over, you are responsible for your own tax and legal position, and if a dispute arises your route is the operator's complaints procedure and then whatever alternative dispute resolution body its licence names — not the UK system. If you are currently self-excluded through GAMSTOP, seeking out sites outside it works against the decision you made; free, confidential help is available from GamCare on 0808 8020 133, and blocking software can restrict access at device level.
Who writes this
Editorial content on oftimeandthecity.com is produced by Malcolm Douglas, who researches operator terms, licensing statements and payment documentation and keeps the comparison pages current. Corrections are welcome and acted on — if a term has changed or a detail here is wrong, tell us through the contact page and we will re-check and update the date. The full publishing rules are set out in our terms and conditions.
Using this site well
Treat the ranking as a shortlist, not a recommendation to sign up. Pick two or three operators whose offers suit how you actually play — spins if you play slots, a smaller cash match if you want something you can calculate — then read their bonus terms and payment pages side by side before you deposit anything. Set a deposit limit at registration rather than later. And if the research starts feeling like a plan to recover money rather than a way to compare entertainment spending, that is the point to stop and use the support links instead.