Terms of use

What Niekie is

Niekie is an independent casino compliance and payout-reliability rating platform. It publishes a 0 to 100 Compliance Score for online casino operators, built from license registries, sanctions screening, moderated player payout reports, domain intelligence, and enforcement history.

Niekie may carry advertising or affiliate arrangements. None of them is an input to any score, ranking or warning published here, and the scoring method is published in full so that claim can be checked rather than taken on trust.

Everything published here is for information. It is not financial advice, not legal advice, and not a guarantee of how an operator will behave. A score is our best assessment from the evidence available at the time it was calculated.

No warranty

We publish what we can evidence and we say plainly what we cannot. That is a commitment about method, not a guarantee of outcome:

• The platform and everything on it is provided as is and as available, with no warranty of any kind.
• We do not warrant that the content is accurate, complete, current, or free from error.
• We do not warrant that the platform will be uninterrupted, secure, or available at any given time.
• To the fullest extent the law allows, we exclude all implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
• Nothing here is financial, legal, or tax advice, and no content creates a professional or advisory relationship between us.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Niekie, its owners, operators, employees, partners, and affiliates disclaim all liability for losses, damages, or consequences arising from:

• Financial losses from gambling or wagering activity.
• Non-payment, payment delays, or disputes with a casino operator.
• Account closures, freezes, or restrictions applied by a casino.
• Cryptocurrency volatility, failed transactions, or blockchain network issues.
• Inaccuracy, delay, or incompleteness of a score, a payout report, or any analysis.
• Actions taken by a casino operator, including fraud, insolvency, or an exit scam.
• Tax obligations, regulatory penalties, or legal consequences where you live.
• Problem gambling, addiction, or related financial or psychological harm.
• Security breaches or data compromises at a third-party casino platform.

Cap on liability

Where liability cannot lawfully be excluded, our total aggregate liability to you for all claims connected to the platform, whether in contract, delict including negligence, or otherwise, is limited to the greater of the total amount you have paid us in the twelve months before the claim arose, or ZAR 2,000.

We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for loss of profit, revenue, data, or goodwill, however caused, even if we were advised such loss was possible.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited. That includes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for gross negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, and any right the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 or other applicable law gives you that cannot be waived. If any part of this section is held unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.

Accuracy of information

We make every reasonable effort to keep the data accurate. Even so:

• Every figure is an estimate from the evidence available when it was calculated, not a statement of fact about how an operator will behave.
• Blockchain data comes from public ledgers and may lag behind the chain.
• Automated analysis reads public sources and is not infallible.
• Player-submitted payout reports are moderated, but they are still user-generated.
• License, sanctions, and enforcement data come from third-party registries that can be incomplete, delayed, or wrong at source.
• An operator's status can change quickly. Always do your own checks before depositing.

Measured game data

Some pages publish returns measured from operators' public bet feeds. These figures carry limits that matter if you rely on them:

• Observed return figures are estimates from a finite sample of rounds, published with a confidence interval. They are not audited RTP and are not a certified figure from the game's studio.
• The rounds come from the operator's own public bet feed. That feed is a marketing surface the operator controls, and it may show winning rounds more often than losing ones.
• We test for that curation and label a feed where the arithmetic proves it. Absence of a label means we could not prove curation, not that a feed is unbiased.
• Figures move as more rounds are collected, and a figure can change materially or be withdrawn.
• Where a sample is too imprecise, or produces a rate no real game could pay, we withhold the figure rather than publish it. Withholding is not a finding about the game.
• Game and studio names come from the operator's own labels, which are sometimes missing, inconsistent, or wrong.
• We do not claim to measure a game's true return, an operator's solvency, or its reserves.

Your own verification

Do not treat anything here as the only input to a decision involving your money. A score, a ranking, a payout report, and a measured return are all starting points for your own checks, not substitutes for them. Verify an operator's license, terms, and withdrawal limits yourself before you deposit, and understand that any operator can change or fail without warning.

Our method, and the specific claims we refuse to make, are set out on the methodology page and in how we score. If a claim is not made there, we are not making it.

Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Niekie, its owners, operators, employees, partners, and affiliates against any claim, liability, loss, or reasonable cost arising from your use of the platform, your breach of these terms, your breach of any law, or content you submit. This does not apply to the extent the claim arises from our own fraud or unlawful conduct.

Commercial arrangements

Niekie links to operators so a reader can reach the site being rated. Those links are plain links to the operator's own address, marked nofollow, and they are not tracked.

We may carry advertising or affiliate arrangements, now or later, and where we do we will say so. What will not change is that no such arrangement is an input to a score, a ranking or a warning. The scoring method is published in full and each result is sealed with a hash over its inputs, so that is a claim you can check rather than one you have to accept.

Your responsibilities

By using the platform you confirm that:

• You are at least 18, or the legal gambling age where you live, whichever is higher.
• You are accessing the platform from somewhere that permits gambling information.
• You accept full personal responsibility for any gambling decision you make.
• You will not use the platform for money laundering, fraud, or any unlawful activity.
• You will not submit false, defamatory, or misleading content.
• You understand gambling carries financial risk and can cost you everything you deposit.

Responsible gambling

Gambling can be addictive and carries serious financial and personal risk. Set deposit and loss limits before you play, never gamble money you cannot afford to lose, and get help early if it stops being entertainment.

US National Problem Gambling Helpline: 1-800-522-4700, free and confidential, 24/7. UK: GamCare on 0808 8020 133. Full list on our responsible gambling page.

Governing law

Niekie is operated from South Africa. These terms, and any dispute or claim arising from them or from your use of the platform, are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa, and you consent to the jurisdiction of the South African courts.

Niekie is not a gambling operator. We do not accept wagers, hold player funds, or run games, and we are not licensed as an operator in any jurisdiction, because rating operators does not require such a license. Nothing on this platform is an offer to gamble.

Gambling law differs everywhere and much of what we write about is unlawful to take part in from some countries, including South Africa, where most online casino play is prohibited. Information about an operator is not encouragement to use it. Whether you may lawfully gamble is your responsibility to determine where you live.

We may update these terms; continued use after a change means you accept the revised version.