There are hundreds of gambling review sites on the internet. Most of them are built around commissions — their rankings, their recommendations, and their “honest reviews” are shaped, consciously or not, by which casinos pay the highest rates. We built [sitesnotongamstop.org.uk] because we were frustrated by that reality and wanted to do something different.
We are a small, UK-based independent team. We don’t accept affiliate commissions, we don’t hold commercial relationships with any casino or betting operator, and we don’t adjust our assessments based on what operators would prefer to see written. If a platform falls short, we say so. If it excels in one area and underdelivers in another, we say that too.
This page explains who we are, what drives our work, and why we believe players should hold every gambling review site — including ours — to a high standard of accountability.
Who We Are
[sitesnotongamstop.org.uk] was founded in 2022 by a group of UK-based gambling industry observers who had spent years watching the affiliate marketing model distort the information available to players. The problem isn’t that affiliate income is inherently dishonest — it’s that it creates structural pressure to favour high-paying operators over genuinely good ones, and to soften or omit criticism that might cost a commercial relationship.
We operate outside that model. Our costs are covered through a small number of display advertising arrangements that are entirely separate from the casinos and betting sites we review. No operator can buy a higher ranking, a better review score, or the omission of negative findings. That’s not a marketing line — it’s the operational basis on which this site was built and the standard we hold ourselves to.
Our team combines backgrounds in gambling industry analysis, consumer advocacy, responsible gambling communications, and long-form investigative content production. We are not here to sell you on any particular platform. We are here to give you accurate, current, and genuinely useful information about sites not on gamstop — and to be honest about both the appeal and the risks of this market.
Meet the Team
James Whitfield – Lead Reviewer
James has spent over a decade working at the intersection of consumer journalism and the UK gambling industry. He started his career as a staff writer at a print-based consumer finance publication, where he covered financial products, insurance, and regulated gambling markets. He moved into specialist gambling content in 2015, initially covering UKGC regulation developments and later expanding to offshore and non-GamStop operators as that market grew in significance for UK players.
His testing methodology is methodical and exacting: he opens real accounts, makes real deposits, and documents the full player experience from registration through to withdrawal. He has tested over 200 gambling platforms since 2015, covering casinos and sportsbooks across Curaçao, MGA, Gibraltar, and Kahnawake licences. James is particularly focused on the accuracy of bonus terms documentation and on the gap between operators’ stated withdrawal speeds and actual processing times — two areas where he has found consistent discrepancies across the industry.
James is also a vocal critic of deceptive review practices in the gambling affiliate space. He has written on this topic for industry publications and believes that players deserve access to genuinely independent assessments, without needing to reverse-engineer the financial relationships behind the reviews they read.
Outside work, James follows horse racing closely — an interest that informs his particular attention to betting market depth and odds quality in his platform assessments.
Sarah Nolan – Responsible Gambling Editor
Sarah joined [sitesnotongamstop.org.uk] in 2023, bringing a background that sits somewhat outside the typical gambling content profile: she spent eight years working in frontline support services for people affected by problem gambling, including a period at a charity that worked in partnership with GamCare on community outreach programmes. That experience gives her an unusual perspective — she understands the appeal of gambling and the psychological mechanisms that can make it harmful from direct, sustained professional exposure to both.
Her role at [sitesnotongamstop.org.uk] is specifically to ensure that responsible gambling content is substantive and useful rather than a box-ticking exercise. She writes and maintains all responsible gambling guidance on the site, reviews James’s platform assessments for accuracy in their responsible gambling tool coverage, and manages relationships with support organisations whose resources we signpost to players.
Sarah is an advocate for the position that informed adult players have the right to access gambling services, including sites not on gamstop, and that the best way to protect vulnerable players is through honest information and accessible support — not through withholding content or treating all adult gamblers as incapable of making decisions. She applies that philosophy consistently: every platform on this site is assessed for its responsible gambling tools, and platforms that fall short are called out explicitly.
She also contributes to the site’s editorial standards process, reviewing final content before publication to ensure it meets our requirements for accuracy, tone, and responsible gambling messaging.
Our Mission
The mission is straightforward: to produce the most accurate, reliable, and independently verified content about sites not on gamstop available to UK players.
That means testing platforms properly — not taking operators at their word. It means publishing negative findings when they exist. It means updating our content when operator performance changes, rather than leaving outdated reviews live because a positive score benefits a commercial partner. And it means treating our readers as intelligent adults who are capable of making informed decisions when given honest information.
We are specifically focused on the sites not on gamstop market because it is the area where independent, non-commercial guidance is most needed. UKGC-licensed operators are covered extensively and reasonably well by mainstream gambling media. Offshore operators are covered almost exclusively by affiliate sites with financial incentives to present them favourably. We aim to fill that gap.
Why We Are Different
Most gambling review sites are, in practical terms, marketing channels for the casinos they feature. The review format creates an illusion of journalistic independence that frequently doesn’t reflect the underlying commercial relationships.
We are different in specific, concrete ways. First: no operator pays us for placement, rankings, or review content. Our position in any comparison reflects our genuine assessment, nothing else. Second: we test with real money. Reviews are not written from a sign-up and skim; they are based on documented testing across payments, support, and actual gameplay. Third: we publish criticism openly. If an operator scores poorly on withdrawals, that finding appears in the review — regardless of whether that operator would prefer it omitted.
We also don’t pretend to be infallible. If we find errors in our content, we correct them. If an operator’s performance has materially changed since our last test cycle, we update the review to reflect current reality. We keep a visible “last reviewed” timestamp on all platform assessments for exactly this reason.
Editorial Independence
Our editorial independence is total and non-negotiable. No casino, betting site, or affiliate network has any input into our review scores, our rankings, or the content of any page on this site. We don’t accept “paid review” arrangements, sponsored content presented as editorial, or requests to adjust findings in exchange for commercial consideration.
Any display advertising that appears on [sitesnotongamstop.org.uk] is managed through a third-party advertising network. Advertisers in that network are not the casinos we review, and their presence on the site has no bearing on how we assess any gambling platform.
If you ever believe a piece of content on this site reflects a commercial interest rather than genuine editorial judgment, we want to hear from you. Contact details are on the Get in Touch section below.
Our Commitment to Responsible Gambling
We take responsible gambling seriously — not as a legal formality but as a genuine responsibility.
The sites not on gamstop market operates outside the GamStop self-exclusion scheme and without the full weight of UKGC consumer protections. That context means some of the people who find and use our content may be in a vulnerable position. We are not willing to ignore that.
Every review on this site includes assessment of the operator’s responsible gambling tools: deposit limits, session limits, cooling-off periods, and self-exclusion options. Operators who offer these tools get credit for it; those who don’t are noted. We will not recommend a platform that lacks basic player protection mechanisms, regardless of its other qualities.
We consistently signpost support organisations throughout our content. GamCare offers free, confidential support for anyone affected by gambling harm — players, friends, and family. GamStop provides free self-exclusion from all UKGC-licensed operators. The UKGC’s player resources page covers your rights as a player in detail. We include links to these resources because we believe they are genuinely useful — not because a regulator told us to.
If gambling is causing you or someone you know harm, please reach out to one of these services.
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