Casino Trust Center is an independent publisher. We earn money when a reader clicks a link to an operator and opens an account. This page explains exactly how that works, in line with the FTC's guidance on endorsements and testimonials (16 CFR Part 255).
The short version: the links are how we get paid, and they are not how we decide what to publish. The rest of this page is the detail behind that sentence.
How affiliate compensation works
Sweepstakes affiliate programs pay in three main structures. Cost per acquisition (CPA) is a one-off payment when a referred player makes a first Gold Coin purchase. Revenue share is a percentage of the revenue a referred player generates, usually calculated net of prizes paid. Hybrid deals combine a smaller CPA with a revenue share.
The important detail is netting. Revenue share is typically calculated after redemptions, so a player who wins reduces what the operator reports as revenue. That is why affiliate programs care about player quality, and why some operators pay less than their marketing suggests.
None of this changes what you pay. Your Gold Coin bundle costs the same whether you arrive directly or through a link on this site. The commission comes out of the operator's marketing budget, not your purchase.
Which links are affiliate links
Links that lead to an operator's registration or landing page are affiliate links. They are marked as partner links, and they may carry a tracking parameter or a cookie that identifies this site as the referrer. Outbound links to sources, regulators and research are not affiliate links and carry no tracking parameter.
We do not use redirect domains that hide the destination. If a link goes to an operator, the destination is visible in the URL before you click.
What commission does not buy
- It does not buy a score, a ranking position or a place in a list.
- It does not buy a page. We cover operators we choose, not operators who ask.
- It does not remove a caveat. If a redemption clause is weak, the page says so.
- It does not keep an operator on the site after it leaves a state or loses access.
- It does not change a state list. We do not promote a brand in a state its terms exclude.
We have turned down programmes that asked for placement or veto rights over coverage. If a programme's terms conflict with this policy, we do not join it.
How we choose what to cover
Coverage follows reader demand and verifiability, not commission rates. A brand gets a page when we can read its terms; it gets dropped when we cannot. Some of the operators with the highest payouts have no page here because their terms were not retrievable, and some pages contain no affiliate links at all.
The order of work is also editorial: state availability first, then operator terms, then the guides that explain the mechanics. Monetisation follows the content, not the other way around.
Cookies, tracking and privacy
Affiliate links may set a cookie in your browser so the operator can attribute the referral. The cookie is set by the operator or its affiliate network, not by us, and its duration is set by their programme, commonly 30 days, sometimes longer.
We do not sell personal data. Our privacy policy explains what we collect, which is deliberately little, and how to contact us about it.
State restrictions and compliance
We do not link to an operator for a state its own terms exclude. If you are in a closed state, the site will tell you so rather than route you through a link that cannot pay out. This is both a compliance position and a reader-protection position: sending someone to a sign-up they cannot complete is worse than sending them nowhere.
Affiliate programmes increasingly require geo-restriction compliance as a condition of participation. We treat that requirement as a floor, not a ceiling.
Sponsored content
We do not sell sponsored reviews or paid placement. If we ever publish paid content, it will be labelled as advertising at the top of the page, visually separated from editorial, and excluded from any ranking or recommendation. That has not happened, and the policy exists so that it cannot happen quietly.
Questions and complaints
Write to editorial@casinotrustcenter.com if something on a page looks like undisclosed promotion, or if a disclosure is missing where a link appears. We would rather fix it than defend it.
See also: our methodology, the editorial policy and the advertising policy.