What is Bonus Buy?

A bonus buy is a slot feature that lets you pay an upfront multiple of your normal stake to instantly trigger the bonus round, rather than spinning the base game and waiting for it to land naturally. The purchase amount is fixed by the game, usually expressed as a multiplier of the stake, and it takes you straight into the free spins or feature that the slot is best known for. Buy prices commonly range from around 50x to 500x your stake, depending on the slot and the value of its feature. High-volatility titles such as those popularised by Nolimit City, Push Gaming and Hacksaw Gaming built much of their reputation on this mechanic. Importantly, buying the feature does not improve your odds: the return-to-player (RTP) of the bought bonus is often set slightly higher than the base-game RTP, but it is still below 100%, so the house edge remains. Worked example: on a slot with a bonus buy priced at 100x, staking £1 per spin means the feature costs £100 to trigger. If the bought bonus advertises a 96.5% RTP, your long-run expected return is £96.50 per £100 buy, an expected loss of £3.50, though a single feature can pay anywhere from £0 to the game's max win of several thousand times stake. For players, bonus buys accelerate both wins and losses dramatically, which is why several jurisdictions, including the UKGC market, have banned them. Affiliates should note buys are restricted in regulated regions and typically excluded from wagering-requirement contribution. Compare with feature trigger, free spins, RTP and slot volatility.