How we research, rank and review

This page explains how Chance Ledger decides what is true, how we rank platforms, and what we have not done yet. It applies to every review, comparison, “best” list and landing page on the site.

The short version

• Our reviews are documentary reviews, built from official documents and public records. We have not yet tested platforms hands-on.
• We rank platforms on published criteria for each vertical, listed below.
• We do not publish numeric scores yet, because we do not think documents alone justify them.
• Every commercial fact carries the date we last verified it.
• Money does not move rankings. Sponsored placements are labeled and never change a platform’s editorial rank.

What a documentary review is

A documentary review answers the question: what does this platform officially promise, and what do regulators and courts say about it? We build each one from:

1. The operator’s own documents: terms of use, fee schedules, sweepstakes rules, promotion terms, help-center articles and availability pages.
2. Regulatory and legal records: CFTC registrations and releases, court opinions and dockets, state statutes and bill pages, and attorney general or gaming-regulator releases.
3. Secondary sources, such as law-firm analyses and trade press, only when a primary source is unavailable. When we rely on one, we say so on the page.

What a documentary review cannot tell you is how a platform behaves in practice. We cannot yet say how long a withdrawal or redemption actually takes, how responsive support is, or whether the app is pleasant to use. We do not write “we tested”, “in our experience” or anything similar, because it would not be true.

How we rank prediction markets

We compare prediction-market platforms on six criteria, in rough order of weight:

Regulatory standing comes first because an attractive platform you cannot legally use, or that may be geofenced next month, is not a good recommendation.

How we rank sweepstakes casinos

Sweepstakes casinos do not hold state gaming licenses. They operate under promotional sweepstakes rules, so the questions are different. We use six criteria, with rules transparency weighted most:

The first criterion carries the most weight. An operator that publishes clear, current rules gives you something to hold it to. An operator that hides its rules behind a login, or whose state list ignores laws already in force, does not.

Why there are no numeric scores yet

Many review sites give each platform a score out of 10. We have chosen not to, for now.

A score suggests a precision that documents alone cannot support. For example, two platforms with similar published fees can differ greatly in how quickly they pay out, and we have not measured that. Until hands-on testing exists, our rankings are ordinal: a stated order with written reasons. They are not a calculated score.

When we introduce scores, this page will explain exactly how they are calculated. Each score will show the date of the testing behind it.

Verification dates

Fees, offers, restricted-state lists and legal status change often. That is why:

• Each brand record carries a last verified date.
• Commercial and legal pages show when their facts were last re-checked.
• Legal statements are always dated and sourced, as in “as of October 4, 2026, according to…”.

If a fact could not be confirmed from an official source, we leave it out or label it unconfirmed. The details are in our fact-checking process.

How commercial relationships are kept out of rankings

We may earn money when readers sign up through our links (see the affiliate disclosure). As of October 4, 2026, we have no affiliate or sponsorship agreements with any platform we rank. These rules govern any we enter:

1. Rankings are set by the criteria above, applied the same way to every platform, whether or not we have a commercial relationship with it.
2. Platforms without a commercial relationship are ranked and reviewed on the same basis. We do not drop a platform because it does not pay us.
3. Commercial terms are never an input to a ranking. The affiliate and sponsorship flags in our brand records do not feed the ranking order.
4. Negative information stays published. Payment cannot remove an enforcement action, a lawsuit or a limitation from a review.
5. Sponsored placements are labeled “Sponsored” wherever they appear. A sponsored placement never changes a platform’s editorial rank. If a sponsored platform also appears in a ranked list, it sits at its editorial position.

If a commercial partner asks for a change to editorial content, the request goes to the editor, who decides it on accuracy alone.

Update cadence

Pages are scheduled for re-review based on how fast their subject changes:

We aim to update affected pages outside that cycle when a major event occurs, such as a court ruling, a new law or a fee change.

Hands-on testing roadmap

Documentary review is where we start, not where we intend to stop. We have not set a start date for hands-on testing. When it begins, the plan includes:

• Opening funded accounts in eligible states, using our own money.
• Recording deposit methods, identity checks, and the actual time from a withdrawal or redemption request to receipt.
• Testing support channels with documented questions.
• Checking that published fees match what is charged on real trades.

When any of this begins, the affected review will say what was tested, by whom, in which state and on what date. Until then, the absence of a test is stated, not hidden.

Questions about our method

If you think a ranking misapplies these criteria, email editors@chanceledger.com. If a fact is wrong, email corrections@chanceledger.com; our editorial policy explains how corrections are handled.