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Fact checking

Fact-Checking Policy

Every material venue, transport, legal, game and offer claim must be traceable to a source suited to that claim and checked close enough to publication to remain useful.

Published 1 October 2026 · Reviewed 1 October 2026 · Queenstown Gaming Guide editorial team

Editorial evidence flowing through review to publication
Original editorial-process illustration.

Source hierarchy

Legislation, regulators, councils, transport operators and the venue’s official pages come first. Tourism bodies can add context. Commercial reviews and user-generated listings can reveal questions, but they do not override a primary source.

Conflicts and freshness

When two official pages conflict, we record the conflict and publish the least specific defensible statement. Opening hours, fares, routes, offers and operator availability receive more frequent checks than stable explanatory material.

What a fact check records

The register captures the URL, publisher, access date, claim supported and any limitation. A visible “last checked” date does not mean every linked service will remain unchanged after that date.

Publication checklist

  • Confirm entity and exact address
  • Open the source, not only a search snippet
  • Check publication and effective dates
  • Record conflicts and caveats
  • Recheck before production release
  • Remove expired commercial claims
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How this policy changes publication decisions

This policy is an operational control, not a reputation statement. Every material claim needs an owner, a source that can support the exact wording, a verification date and a clear response when the evidence changes. Search snippets, copied affiliate tables and anonymous reviews cannot satisfy that standard.

  • Keep primary evidence beside the claim it supports.
  • Mark unresolved legal or factual points before publication.
  • Correct the page, changelog and dependent pages together.

Independence also means disclosing the commercial model. Sponsored links may earn the guide a commission; they are labelled, and commercial considerations do not override legal, safety or factual gates.

How to use this information

Start with the decision you need to make, then distinguish a stable fact from a live condition. An address or statutory rule may remain stable for years; a timetable, entrance condition, machine configuration or promotional term may change without notice. Follow the primary-source link closest to the claim and check that it describes the same venue, service, product and date.

Keep a simple record of what you checked and when. Do not fill an evidence gap with a directory excerpt, an old screenshot or another publisher’s confidence. Where two official sources differ, use the more specific and current source, describe the conflict, and ask the responsible organisation before relying on it.

Evidence rule: use the linked official source for the live fact, then record the date checked. If the source is unavailable or ambiguous, keep the claim unpublished and list it in Sources and updates.