The bonus buy feature in slots: what it is, what it costs and where it is restricted

What a bonus buy is

A bonus buy is a button that lets you pay a fixed price to go straight into a slot's feature round, often free spins, instead of waiting for it to trigger during normal play. The price is shown as a multiple of your stake. Wins inside the round still form according to the game's win type, described in paylines and ways to win.

Providers give the feature different names. Pragmatic Play says the free spins round in Gates of Olympus 1000 can also be triggered with a bonus buy in the base game. Nolimit City calls its version the Nolimit Bonus, and Big Time Gaming's Extra Chilli page describes a Feature Drop that lets the player trigger the feature at any time.

A buy does not take the outcome out of the random number generator's hands: what the round pays is still random. What changes is how much money rides on one decision, and the share of it returned, which is what RTP in slots measures.

What providers list for the price

The table brings together what four providers print on their own game pages. None of the four labels a separate RTP figure for the buy.

Nolimit City adds a note under its buy: the feature may be removed in some regulated markets. Push Gaming writes that the RTP of the game can be found in the user panel and on the game loading screen.

What RTP means for a buy

RTP for a buy works like RTP for a spin. It is the share of the amount paid that comes back on average, measured across a very large number of buys rather than one.

Illustrative example: an RTP of 96.50% on a 100x buy means an average return of 96.5 times the stake per buy over the long run. Any single buy can return a small fraction of its price, or many times it.

Some games print one RTP for the whole game, and others print a range or several settings. Big Time Gaming gives a range for Extra Chilli without saying on that page which figure belongs to which mode. Where a game's help screen states a separate figure for the buy, that is the figure that applies to money spent on it.

In Kenya, L.N. 112 r.45(4) makes operators disclose each game's theoretical return to player to the Authority, and r.45(1) makes them display game rules before any wager. Neither provision mentions buys.

Cost illustration in shillings

Illustrative example, with assumed figures: a base stake of KES 20, which is the minimum online bet under section 71(1) of the Gambling Control Act, 2025, and a buy priced at 100x. One buy costs KES 2,000.

If the buy's RTP were 96.50%, the average return across many buys would be KES 1,930, an average cost of KES 70 per buy. Ten buys would mean KES 20,000 paid and an expected loss of KES 700, while the actual result of any ten could sit far above or far below that.

The same KES 2,000 staked as 100 spins of KES 20 at the same RTP carries the same expected loss of KES 70. The difference is how the money is risked: one feature round settles the whole KES 2,000. The RTP calculator turns any RTP and stake into an expected loss.

Price ladders raise the sums quickly. At the top of Mental's listed range, 1,000x a KES 20 base bet is KES 20,000 for a single buy. How unevenly a round can pay depends on the game's volatility, explained in slot volatility explained.

Why some regulators restrict it

Provider notes show the feature is switched off in some places. Nolimit City says its buy may be removed in some regulated markets but does not list them, and none of the regulator texts opened for this guide names the bonus buy.

Published game rules show the kind of concern involved. Germany's State Treaty on Gambling 2021 (GlüStV 2021), § 22a(7), caps the stake for a virtual slot game at one euro per game, and § 22a(6) requires a game to last at least five seconds on average. Illustrative example: a buy priced at 100x a one-euro stake would cost 100 euros, a hundred times that per-game cap.

In Britain, the Gambling Commission's technical standard RTS 14A states that gambling products must not actively encourage customers to chase their losses, increase their stake or increase the amount they have decided to gamble. Requirement 14E bars features that let a customer reduce the time until the result is presented, naming turbo, quick spin and slam stop.

A buy puts many stakes into one round and skips the base game. Rules on stake size and game speed are the ones that touch it, although each text speaks in general terms.

Where Kenya's rules stand

The Gambling Control Act, 2025 and its 2026 Regulations as gazetted contain no provision on bonus buys. Section 2 of the Act defines a stake as money or money's worth that a player may risk to make a bet or buy into a gambling game.

The general rules apply to any game with a buy. Section 71(1) sets the KES 20 minimum online bet, L.N. 112 r.45(2) requires the random number generator to be certified, and r.84 requires operators to offer deposit, loss, session and expenditure limits that the player sets.

Those tools, and the regulator's toll-free line, are set out on the help and limits page.