Rachel is the independent compliance fact-checker for FreeCredit Casinos. Every article we publish — brand reviews, guides, the editorial policy itself — passes through her review before going live. She has no salary relationship with FreeCredit Casinos, no commercial relationship with any operator we cover, and she is paid a fixed monthly fee specifically structured so that rejecting a piece costs her nothing.
Every FreeCredit Casinos article since February 2024 has been reviewed by Rachel before publication. Her review covers six categories.
Every licence claim (Curaçao, Anjouan, PAGCOR, MGA, MGA SVG) is cross-checked against the issuing regulator's public register the day of publication.
Any statement about Malaysian law — Common Gaming Houses Act 1953, offshore play rules, age limits, AML reporting — is verified against current statute and case law.
Withdrawal times, bonus values, wagering multipliers, RTP figures — all must reconcile with the audit trail (screenshots, timestamps, transaction IDs).
Annual review of every FreeCredit Casinos author's claimed memberships, qualifications, and prior employment. Last full audit completed January 2026.
Every quote attributed to a regulator, journalist, or industry source must be on file with a verifiable URL or document source.
I flag any claim that "looks like data" but cannot be reproduced. "92% of withdrawals processed within 15 minutes" → only acceptable if the underlying dataset is auditable.
Anonymised quarterly data from Rachel's fact-check audit log, covering Q1 2024 to Q1 2026. Full dataset available to journalists and regulators on request.
Of the 9 articles Rachel blocked from publication, 7 contained licence claims that did not survive her cross-check against the issuing regulator. The remaining 2 contained author-credential overstatements that have since been corrected on the relevant author profile pages.
All publicly verifiable through the linked institutional records.
From Malaysian law graduate to PhD researcher to independent audit consultant. Rachel has never worked for an iGaming operator — that's a deliberate professional choice.
Fixed monthly retainer for external fact-checking on every published article. Strictly an arm's-length contractor relationship — no equity, no performance pay, no operator commercial relationships. Has rejected 9 articles outright and demanded changes on 68 others.
Boutique consultancy advising regulators and compliance teams on Asia-Pacific iGaming policy. Clients include three national regulators (under NDA), two iGaming industry bodies, and several academic research projects. The FreeCredit Casinos fact-check work is run through this firm.
One year as a postdoc following her PhD, researching offshore iGaming licensing frameworks across Southeast Asia. Published the foundational paper "Curaçao 2.0: The Master-Sublicense Model and Player Protection" (Gaming Law Review, 2019).
PhD thesis: "Regulatory Arbitrage in Southeast Asian Online Gambling: A Comparative Study of Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines." Awarded the Macquarie Vice-Chancellor's Commendation for Academic Excellence.
Three years at Malaysia's central bank, AML monitoring and suspicious-transaction analysis covering the financial sector. This is where she developed the regulatory perspective that later defined her academic and consulting work.
"The reason I will not work directly for an operator — and the reason I am willing to do this fact-check work for FreeCredit Casinos — is that the value of an external audit collapses the moment the auditor depends on the audited party for their income. Independence is not a marketing claim. It is an organisational structure. And it has to be visible from the outside or it does not count."
— Dr. Rachel Tan, ICE London Conference keynote, February 2023
A selection of Rachel's peer-reviewed academic publications. Full bibliography on her Google Scholar profile.
I was approached by Marcus in late 2023 about fact-checking work for FreeCredit Casinos. My first response was to decline — I have never worked for an affiliate or review site, and most of them are not structured in a way that would tolerate an independent fact-checker.
What changed my mind was the specific structure he proposed. A fixed monthly retainer paid through my consultancy. No performance metrics tied to publication volume. No equity. No commercial relationships with any covered operator. Most importantly: a written commitment that my rejection of a piece would not affect my fee, and that my findings would be acted on, not negotiated.
I accepted on those terms in February 2024. Since then I have reviewed 312 articles. I have demanded corrections on 68 of them and blocked 9 from publication entirely. None of those interventions have been pushed back on by the FreeCredit Casinos editorial team — every demanded correction has been made and every blocked article has either been substantially rewritten or shelved.
This is the structure that makes external fact-checking work. When the structure is right, the work itself is straightforward — you simply read each draft against the source material, ask whether the claims are supported, and say so. The skill is not the reading. The skill is being structurally free to say "no, this does not survive the licence register check" and have that answer mean something.
For journalists, academics, or regulators wishing to verify any specific fact-check decision, my audit log is available on request. Email rachel.tan@audit-consult.com.au with your institutional affiliation.
