DashTickets is operated by Dash Tickets New Zealand Limited and was founded in 2009 by Matthew Robert Davey. It is a magazine that focuses on consistently delivering unbiased casino reviews based on actual gaming experience from a player’s perspective. The team’s use of a mystery shopper tactic, combined with a deep understanding of the legal aspects of the casino industry in New Zealand, helps locals gamble safely and responsibly.
“When we started, unbiased casino reviews were basically nonexistent in New Zealand. The industry relies heavily on constant promotion and advertisement, so the web is flooded with positive articles that don’t necessarily correlate with reality. We’ve always put players first, so we established DashTickets and created our guidelines to ensure that locals have at least one reliable resource they can trust when it comes to choosing a casino,” says Mark Dash, editor-in-chief of DashTickets.
Today, the team leverages its combined casino experience of over 50 years to test four online casinos per week and ensure objective reviews.
The reviewers deposit actual money (approximately 30 NZ dollars on average) into the casino, play for at least 10 hours, and then report back on their experience, covering everything from game quality to cash-out policies. Not only that, the team’s extensive reviews also include casino background checks, legal status, as well as the reputation with New Zealand players.
An example of a casino review page from DashTickets
As a result of this meticulous work, DashTickets casino magazine became one of the leading websites for gambling reviews in New Zealand, with a loyal reader base and a well-established reputation.
What makes the mystery shopper approach effective?
According to Mark Dash, the casino industry heavily relies on PR, and owners have found ways to transform previously unbiased genres into advertisements. Dash recalls that the team quickly came up with the idea of using a mystery shopper to understand the true casino experience.
“Think of streamers who play online casino games from dedicated accounts, and then allegedly win a lot of money. This is one of the ways casino owners adopted what once could be an honest experience that stream viewers could benefit from and changed it into a marketing trick. Now imagine if this were all there was on the market—who could you trust then?” asks Dash.
As Mark puts it, most players want the same: quick and reliable payments in NZ dollars and good customer support — and a lot of casinos don’t provide even these basic services, or outright scam their players. This is something a reviewer can only learn based on their own anonymous experience as well as from interviewing other players.
This is also an integral part of a solid DashTickets review: the team spends significant time on forums and in private conversations to form an objective opinion about a specific establishment.
What makes a solid casino review protocol a must in New Zealand?
“Unfortunately, players in New Zealand are highly vulnerable, and no government entity or law provides meaningful protection regarding offshore casinos. No one really decides which casino sites can or cannot accept New Zealanders, and there is no safety net for problem gambling. As a magazine, we decided to do our best to alleviate the problem by keeping our audience well-informed,” says Mark Dash, editor-in-chief of DashTickets.
Another example of a casino review page from DashTickets
With that goal in mind, the team has established its own protocol for reviewing casinos using the mystery shopper approach. Here are its main points:
- The casino should provide quick automated payments without fees or stringent KYC checks.
- The casino should provide the best games that are set to the highest available payout rate.
- The casino should operate under a valid license and have a solid legal background.
- The casino should provide a decent customer support service.
- The casino should have a good reputation among New Zealanders.
If a particular casino passes this checklist, it can earn a positive review on the website. To simplify the experience for readers, DashTickets invented its review metric. The DashScore evaluates casino usability, deposits, payout speed, bonuses, games, support, security, and other qualities, condensing hours of research into a single score from 0 to 100.
“We know our reviews can be quite detailed, so we created DashScore to simplify it for our readers. While we still recommend reading our articles in full to see the whole picture, we provide a way to quickly see if a casino is worth your attention. It is a perfect final touch to an extensive analysis, and we see huge interest in our scores among the readers,” says Dash.
Want to connect with DashTickets?
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