Last updated: May 2026 — Marcus Tremblay, Festivalarmenien
At Festivalarmenien, every casino review you read is the result of a structured, hands-on evaluation process carried out personally by Marcus Tremblay. We do not publish opinions based on press releases, operator submissions, or hearsay. Every platform we cover at festivalarmenien.com is tested from a real Canadian player's perspective before a single word of the review is written. This page explains exactly how we work, what we look for, and how we arrive at our final scores.
Marcus Tremblay is the author and owner of Festivalarmenien. Based in Canada, Marcus has spent years evaluating online gambling platforms with a focus on the Canadian market. His methodology is rooted in direct experience: he registers real accounts, deposits real money, tests games, contacts customer support, and requests withdrawals before forming any conclusion. This first-hand approach is the foundation of everything published on this site.
Marcus operates independently. Festivalarmenien is not owned by, affiliated with, or editorially controlled by any casino operator or gambling software provider. While the site may earn referral commissions through affiliate links, these commercial relationships have zero influence over scores, rankings, or written assessments.
Before testing begins, Marcus researches the casino's ownership history, licensing status, and any publicly available regulatory actions or player complaints. Platforms with a confirmed history of non-payment or licence revocations are excluded entirely from consideration.
Marcus registers a new account as a Canadian player, going through the full sign-up flow. He notes how long identity verification takes, what documents are requested, and whether the process creates unnecessary friction for legitimate users.
A real deposit is made using payment methods commonly available to Canadian players. Welcome bonuses and promotions are claimed to evaluate their actual value, wagering requirements, and any hidden terms buried in the fine print.
Marcus plays a representative sample of slots, table games, and live dealer titles. He evaluates loading speeds, game variety, software provider quality, and whether the advertised game count matches what players actually find inside the lobby.
Support is contacted deliberately through live chat, email, and where available, phone. Marcus asks both simple and complex questions to assess response times, agent knowledge, and the quality of assistance provided.
A withdrawal is initiated to test processing times, any additional verification steps, and whether the stated payout speeds match reality. This step alone disqualifies many platforms that appear legitimate on the surface.
The casino is accessed on a mobile device without a dedicated app, and through any available app, to evaluate the quality of the mobile experience independently of the desktop version.
Each casino receives a final score out of 10. That score is calculated by weighting six core categories as shown below.
| Category | Weighting | What We Evaluate |
|---|---|---|
| Licensing and Safety | 25% | Regulatory licence validity, SSL encryption, responsible gambling tools, fairness certifications |
| Bonuses and Promotions | 20% | Welcome offer value, wagering requirements, bonus terms clarity, ongoing promotions |
| Game Selection | 20% | Total game count, software provider diversity, live casino quality, game loading performance |
| Payment Methods | 15% | Deposit and withdrawal options for Canadian players, processing times, fees, withdrawal limits |
| Customer Support | 10% | Availability hours, response speed, agent quality, number of contact channels |
| Mobile Experience | 10% | App availability, browser compatibility, interface usability, game performance on mobile |
All final scores are presented on a scale of 1 to 10. Here is how to interpret each range:
Independence is not a marketing claim here — it is a structural commitment. Marcus Tremblay writes every review without input from the casinos being evaluated. Operators cannot pay to improve their scores, cannot request edits to remove negative findings, and are not given advance access to draft reviews.
When affiliate relationships exist, they are disclosed transparently on relevant pages. A casino's willingness or unwillingness to enter an affiliate arrangement has no effect on how it is scored. Several of the highest-rated platforms on this site have no affiliate relationship with Festivalarmenien at all, and some casinos with affiliate deals have received low scores where testing revealed genuine problems.
Reviews are also updated. If a casino's performance changes after initial publication — whether it improves or declines — Marcus revisits the testing process and revises the score and written content to reflect current reality. Players in Canada deserve accurate, current information, not a snapshot frozen in time.
If you have questions about how a specific casino was evaluated, or if you believe important information is missing from one of our reviews, you are encouraged to reach out directly through the contact page at festivalarmenien.com. Reader feedback is taken seriously and has led to review updates in the past.