Scoring notes
Method and weights
This page sets out how the index scores ten Australian casino hotels. The score is a comparison tool, not a rating of gambling products. Each value is taken from the facts file used for the site. If a venue does not publish a parameter, the cell is left as not published and the transparency score is reduced.
data-art illustration, not a photograph
index / Method
| Parameter | Group | How scored |
|---|---|---|
| Room count | Hotel | Published official count scores best; secondary counts are used with a source note; conflicting or missing counts are not published. |
| Opening year | Hotel | Scores when the venue, regulator or secondary source publishes a dated opening fact; blanks are not estimated. |
| Hotels on site | Hotel | Credits published accommodation structure, including multiple hotels in one complex where the facts file supports it. |
| Room categories | Hotel | Scores published room or suite category lists; not published if only general accommodation wording is available. |
| Check-in and check-out | Hotel | Scores published check-in and check-out times; partial or missing policies reduce the hotel and transparency result. |
| Pet policy | Hotel | Scores only a published pets rule, including a published refusal; silence is not published. |
| Accessibility | Hotel | Scores published accessibility details such as accessible rooms or accessible parking; general compliance is not assumed. |
| Pool | Leisure | Scores a published pool facility; extra detail is recorded but not invented where the venue gives only a simple listing. |
| Spa | Leisure | Scores a published spa or day-spa facility; treatment brands are recorded only where published. |
| Gym | Leisure | Scores a published gym or fitness centre; equipment lists are not required. |
| Waterfront | Leisure | Scores a published waterfront, river, harbour, beach, inlet or foreshore setting from the facts file. |
| Golf | Leisure | Scores a published golf course, golf redevelopment, driving range or equivalent golf facility. |
| Restaurants | Dining and entertainment | Scores named venues and, where published, a count; names alone are recorded without adding cuisines. |
| Bars | Dining and entertainment | Scores published bar lists or named bars; no count is inferred where the list is incomplete. |
| Cuisine detail | Dining and entertainment | Scores published cuisine or venue type; restaurant names without descriptions stay names only. |
| Theatre or showroom | Dining and entertainment | Scores a published theatre, showroom, live venue or equivalent entertainment space. |
| Theatre capacity | Dining and entertainment | Scores a published capacity figure; venue names without capacity do not receive capacity credit. |
| Convention or event capacity | Dining and entertainment | Scores published convention, ballroom or event-capacity figures; venue lists without capacities receive limited credit. |
| Casino floor publication | Dining and entertainment | Records whether the venue publishes floor, table, machine or area information; unverified snippets are treated cautiously. |
| Airport distance | Access | Scores a published resort-to-airport distance or a qualified source note; no map estimate is made. |
| City distance | Access | Scores a published distance or location relationship to the city centre where available. |
| Public transport | Access | Scores published train, ferry, bus, shuttle, walking-link or transport-stop information. |
| Parking | Access | Scores published parking availability; rates score only where a published rate is present in the facts file. |
| Valet parking | Access | Scores separately where a venue publishes valet availability or rates. |
| Opening hours | Access | Scores published casino or venue operating hours and published holiday closures where available. |
| Casino-entry age | Access | Uses the country rule that minimum casino entry age is 18 across Australian states and territories. |
| Loyalty programme | Transparency | Scores a published programme name or membership structure; absent or unnamed benefits are not inferred. |
| Official-source coverage | Transparency | Counts how many parameters are published by the venue, regulator or official booking partner rather than secondary sources. |
| Secondary-source reliance | Transparency | Reduces transparency where important values rely on secondary sources because the resort’s own pages do not publish them. |
| Change and closure disclosure | Transparency | Records dated changes, suitability decisions, openings and closures from the facts file; closed Treasury Brisbane is excluded. |
What the score measures
The index covers ten physical casino hotel properties in Australia. Australia bans online casino play under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, so the scoring does not assess online gambling, remote access or promotions. It measures published hotel, leisure, dining, entertainment, access and disclosure facts for physical venues only.
The total score is out of 100. It is made from five groups: hotel 25, leisure 20, dining and entertainment 20, access 20, and transparency 15. The ranking on the index follows that total. The detailed side-by-side values sit in the 30-parameter table, while scores by group shows how each venue’s total is built.
The method gives credit for breadth and for publication. A large complex can score well if it publishes rooms, check-in rules, transport, parking and venue capacities. A smaller property can also score well when its own pages provide clear values. A blank field is not filled from memory, maps, booking-engine assumptions or general travel knowledge.
All casino-entry age rules are treated as 18+ across the states and territories, using the country rule in the facts file. State-level regulator and help-line information is separated on the by state page. Treasury Brisbane is not in the roster because it closed on 25 August 2024 when gaming moved to The Star Brisbane at Queen’s Wharf.
Weights and groups
The five groups are fixed before scoring. Hotel carries 25 points because the site is a casino-hotel index and the room product is the first filter for many readers. Leisure carries 20 points for pools, spa, gym and waterfront or golf setting. Dining and entertainment carries 20 points for restaurants, bars, theatre or showroom data and convention capacity. Access carries 20 points for published airport or city distance, transport, parking, hours and practical policies. Transparency carries 15 points for how much a venue publishes in a usable form.
The weights are not changed to suit a venue. Crown Melbourne, Crown Perth and Crown Sydney are still read against the same groups as Wrest Point, Country Club Tasmania, Mindil Beach Casino Resort, Reef Hotel Casino and The Ville. Where one complex has several hotels, such as Crown Melbourne or Crown Perth, the complex is scored as one roster entry unless the parameter itself needs a hotel-specific note.
Some parameters are numeric, such as rooms, opening year, restaurant count or a printed theatre capacity. Some are categorical, such as whether a pool, spa, gym, parking or loyalty programme is published. Some are disclosure checks: for example, whether a pet policy or accessibility information is published. The table below states the scoring treatment for each parameter.
The transparency group is not a bonus. It is a guardrail. A venue that may have a facility but does not publish it in the facts file is not credited for that facility, and the missing value also counts against disclosure.
Source quality
Each cell is tied to a source-quality note in the facts file. A value from the venue, regulator or official booking partner is treated as the strongest source. A value marked medium is used with a light qualification when needed. A value marked secondary is used only as secondary, for example where the resort’s own pages do not publish a room count but Wikipedia or another listing supplies one. Low-confidence snippets are not used to fill a main score unless the parameter is explicitly being scored as unverified or not published.
The rule is deliberately conservative. If two sources conflict and the venue does not publish a firm figure, the index does not average them. It records not published or explains the conflict on the relevant profile. Mindil Beach Casino Resort, for example, has disputed room-count figures in the facts file, so the profile treats the room count as not published rather than choosing a number.
Publication quality also affects presentation. The profile pages link to each hotel’s official site with rel=nofollow, but the score is not for sale and is not changed by a link. The site’s commercial position is explained on how this site earns, and the editorial desk is described on about.
The score date is the date of the facts file used for the page. If a venue publishes a new capacity, closes a facility or changes a parking rule after that date, the next update should change the table rather than rely on old text.
How to read a blank
A blank or n/p entry means not published in the facts file. It does not mean that the facility is absent. It means the index could not use a published value under the site rules. This matters most for room totals, transport, parking rates, accessibility and convention capacity, where unverified assumptions would make the comparison look more precise than it is.
For numeric fields, no estimate is made. If an airport page states an airport’s distance from the city centre but the resort does not publish its distance from the resort, the index does not turn that into a resort distance. If a venue names a theatre but does not publish capacity, the name can be recorded, but the capacity cell stays not published.
For categorical fields, the same rule applies. A casino hotel may have accessible rooms, pet rules or public transport nearby, but the score only uses what is published in the facts file. The absence of a published pet policy, for example, is a transparency issue, not a claim that pets are accepted or refused.
Readers who want to compare only one part of the index can use the parameter pages for hotel parameters, leisure, dining and entertainment, access and transparency. Those pages keep the same source rule as the main table.
Independence and limits
The index is editorial. It is not affiliated with any casino, hotel operator, regulator or state government. Scores are based on the published parameters in the facts file and the fixed weighting above. A venue cannot buy a higher place, and the desk does not take card details.
The method also has limits. It does not measure room rates unless a dated price is in the facts file. It does not score guest reviews unless a platform rating, score, count and date are available in the facts file. It does not compare gambling products, machine counts or table games beyond factual publication where the venue itself or a qualified source supplies the value.
The request desk is secondary to the tables. Readers can use query the desk to ask for a room check by date, headcount and preferred house, but the index itself is designed for comparison before any request is sent.