Bonus Buy in Slots: How the Price Works and Why Regulators Object

What the button does, mechanically

In a normal game, the bonus round appears after a random trigger in the base game, so the cost of reaching it is spread across many small stakes. A bonus buy replaces the trigger with a single payment, quoted as a multiple of the current bet. The round that follows is generated by the same mathematical model as a natural trigger, or by a version designed for purchases; providers document this differently, and the game's information screen is the only reliable place to read it.

Two points are easy to overlook. First, the purchase is a stake. If the price is 100 times a C$1 bet, you have staked C$100 in one click, which matters for any bet limit or wagering rule attached to your balance; our guide to the maximum-bet clause shows how that interacts with bonus terms. Second, the price is not a promise about the result. It buys access to a distribution of outcomes, not a prize.

How the price relates to return to player

Return to player (RTP) is the long-run share of stakes returned. If a bought feature carries an RTP of 96 per cent, then over a very large number of purchases the expected return per C$100 spent is C$96, an expected cost of C$4. A designer may set the price so that the bought mode and the base game share a similar RTP, but that is a design choice, not a rule, and we have not verified it for any particular title. Some games publish one figure, some publish a separate figure for the purchase, and some have configurable RTP versions that differ by operator, which we explain in our guide to checking RTP versions.

The expected cost per purchase is a percentage of a larger amount. At the same 4 per cent edge, a C$1 spin costs 4 cents in expectation, and a C$100 purchase costs C$4. You are spending the same expected percentage faster, which is why the same hour of play burns more money in bought mode.

A worked example: why bought rounds are lumpy

The table below is our own invented distribution for a feature priced at 100 times the base stake. It does not describe any real game; it is a simplified model built to average 96 times the stake.

The contributions add up to 96x, an RTP of 96 per cent. But eight times in ten the purchase returns less than its price, and almost a third of the average comes from the one-in-fifty top outcome. With a C$1 base bet, twenty purchases cost C$2,000. The expected loss is C$80, yet in this model a session that never reaches the top outcomes is the normal case, not the unlucky one. That is what high volatility means in money terms, and it is why bankroll rules built for base-game play do not carry over.

The buy price and the base game are not interchangeable

The popular comparison, that you are only paying for what the game would give you anyway, hides an important difference. In the base game, the cost of reaching a feature is spread over many small stakes and interrupted by results you can see, so a player can stop. A purchase concentrates the cost in one decision and gives a result immediately, which makes repetition quick. Two practical consequences follow:

• Session loss is less predictable, because variance is high and the stake per action is large.
• Any limit expressed per spin, such as a deposit-matched bonus cap, can be tested in a single click.

For the wider mechanics of how slots pay, see our guide to how real-money slots work and the online slots overview. The rules for features differ between studios, which is covered under game software.

What regulators have said, and what they have not

Great Britain

On 17 January 2020 the UK Gambling Commission reminded operators about feature buy-in facilities on slots-style games, which let players pay to skip to the bonus feature. It cited two technical standards: requirement 3A, that rules are easily available and understandable before a customer commits to gamble, and requirement 14A, that games must not encourage customers to chase losses, increase stakes or continue after saying they want to stop. Six operators were found offering the feature, and all six removed it; one game charged more than 3,000 pounds to enter the bonus. The notice is on the Commission's website.

A year later, on 2 February 2021, the Commission announced a package of slot design changes with a deadline of 31 October 2021, including a 2.5-second minimum spin time and a ban on features that speed up play. The technical standard's ban on features that reduce the time to a result exempts bonus or feature games where no additional stake is wagered, so the exemption is drafted around features that do not require an extra payment. The standard is published as RTS 14 on responsible product design, and the package is described in the Commission's announcement.

The Netherlands

On 26 June 2025 the Dutch Kansspelautoriteit issued a warning to a licensed operator concerning a BonusBuy autoplay function, which let players keep playing automatically with bonuses they had bought. The regulator treated the function as prohibited because it promotes excessive play. It said the supplier had switched it on by mistake, that it was live for about two hours and that affected players were compensated; the outcome was a warning with a note that stricter sanctions could follow. This is narrower than a general ban on buying features, and we would not describe it as one. The text is on the Kansspelautoriteit site.

Canada

In Ontario the AGCO's Registrar's Standards for Internet Gaming require game rules and the odds of winning to be available before a bet is placed, and they set slot rules on minimum cycle time and speed-up features that do not apply to bonus or feature games requiring no additional stake. The parts of the standards we read do not mention bonus buys by name. Whether a title offers the option therefore depends on the operator and on the version of the game supplied for that market; offshore sites follow their own licences. The standards are on the AGCO website.

Questions to answer before pressing the button

• What is the price as a multiple of the stake, and what is the real-money amount at your current bet?
• Does the information screen give an RTP for the purchase, and is it the same as the base game's?
• Does your active bonus allow feature purchases, and does the purchase count towards wagering?
• How many purchases can your budget absorb if the first ten return less than the price?
• Have you set a deposit or loss limit that is checked per session, not per spin?

If you decide to use the feature, treat the total price of a planned series as the amount you are prepared to lose, not as an investment. Our pages on casino bonuses explain how purchases interact with offers, and help is available at any time: ConnexOntario offers free, confidential support on 1-866-531-2600, and the responsible gambling page lists other provincial lines.