Community forum — 29,847 UK members · UKGC licensed casinos only · Updated May 2026
Buy-bonus slots (also called feature buy or bonus buy slots) allow players to purchase direct access to the bonus round without triggering it through natural gameplay. The cost is typically 75x to 100x the base stake. A player betting at £0.50 per spin could purchase the bonus round directly for £37.50 to £50. This mechanic has been available in the UK market since around 2019 and features in hundreds of titles.
The mathematics of a bonus buy are identical to triggering the bonus naturally. The RTP on the purchased bonus is the same as the free-spin RTP within the base game’s stated RTP. There is no statistical advantage to buying versus waiting. What changes is variance concentration: you are front-loading a significant stake to access the high-variance portion of the game immediately rather than across multiple base-game spins.
Popular bonus buy titles in 2026 include Money Train 2 and 3 (Relax Gaming), Gates of Olympus and Starlight Princess (Pragmatic Play), Dead or Alive 2 (NetEnt), Wanted Dead or a Wild (Hacksaw Gaming) and Fire in the Hole xBomb (Nolimit City). Each offers dramatically different maximum win potentials and average bonus round payouts. Community members post bonus buy session results throughout this forum.
UKGC rules do not currently prohibit bonus buy features, though they have been discussed in regulatory consultations. The £2 maximum stake per spin applies to the base game. However, a bonus buy at 100x stake on a £2 maximum game costs £200 per purchase, which bypasses the spirit of the stake limit. Be aware of this escalation risk and set firm session budgets before using bonus buy features.