Bonus buy

A bonus buy, also called a feature buy, is an option in some slots that lets a player pay a set multiple of the stake to go straight to the bonus round instead of waiting to trigger it. It is not offered on GB-licensed sites: on 17 January 2020 the Gambling Commission told licensees that bonus buys break its Remote Technical Standards.

What a bonus buy is

In markets where it is allowed, a button next to the reels offers the bonus round, usually free spins, for a fixed price. The price is expressed as a multiple of the base stake, and it is often large. As an illustration only, a game might price its bonus at 100 times the stake, so a £1 stake would mean paying £100 for one bonus round.

Some games offer several buy options, for example a standard bonus and an enhanced one with bigger multipliers at a higher price.

How it works, step by step

Where the option exists:

1. You set a base stake.
2. You press the buy button and see the price, a multiple of that stake.
3. You confirm, and the full price is taken as a single wager.
4. The bonus round starts, as if you had triggered it with scatters.
5. The round plays out and its total win is paid.

Common variations

• Standard and super buys: different prices for different versions of the bonus.
• Feature spins: paying more per spin for a higher chance of a feature. That is closely related to an ante bet, which, unlike bonus buy, some GB versions of games still offer.
• Buy a specific feature: paying for a hold and win round or a guaranteed number of special symbols.

What it does to the maths and the feel

A bought bonus is priced so that its expected return is still below what you pay, so the house edge remains. In some games the RTP of the buy option is quoted separately and can differ slightly from the base game.

The bigger effect is on spending and volatility. Buying a bonus turns a large amount of money into a single, highly uncertain outcome. Many bought rounds return less than the price; a few return much more. Expected loss is still total staked × (1 − RTP), so with an illustrative RTP of 96%, buying ten £100 bonuses would mean £1,000 staked and, in theory, about £40 lost over the long run, though actual results swing widely around that. The RTP calculator runs the sum for any figures.

Rules in Great Britain

Bonus buys are not offered on GB-licensed sites. On 17 January 2020 the Gambling Commission told licensees that the feature breaks its Remote Technical Standards, and GB versions of games leave it out. Separately, stake limits of £5 per spin for players 25 and over and £2 for 18 to 24 year olds apply per game cycle, and any extra stake paid inside a feature counts towards that limit. If you see a buy button on a site that claims to serve players in Great Britain, check that it holds a Gambling Commission licence; our UK slot rules page explains what a licence covers.