Bottom line: A bonus buy charges a fixed multiple of your stake - usually around 100x - and drops you straight into a pokie's feature round. The UK forced the button off licensed sites in 2020; offshore casinos kept it. Whether it is ever worth pressing comes down to maths most players never open, laid out here without the gloss.
What a bonus buy actually is
Pay the multiple, skip the base game
Reaching a feature round the normal way means waiting for scatters, and scatters answer to nobody: a session can land three features in an hour or none in five hundred spins. The bonus buy (also sold as "feature buy" or "buy pass") removes the wait - pay a set multiple of your stake and the feature triggers immediately. On Gates of Olympus the buy costs 100x the bet: A$1 a spin means a A$100 press.
Tier menus run from 99x to 608x
Roughly 100x is the going rate, not the ceiling. Some games sell several doors into the same feature: Push Gaming's Big Bamboo lists four buy options at 99x, 179x, 300x and 608x the stake, the dearer tiers starting the round in a stronger state. At A$1 a spin, the top tier is a single A$608 purchase.
Which studios ship the button
Six names to know
Nolimit City, Hacksaw Gaming, Relax Gaming, Push Gaming and BGaming build buy options into much of what they release, and many Pragmatic Play titles carry one too. Studio detail lives on the hubs - our Nolimit City page and Pragmatic Play page - while this page owns the mechanic.
The regulatory story - why the UK pulled it
The UKGC warning of 17 January 2020
On 17 January 2020 the UK Gambling Commission warned operators that "feature buy-in" conflicts with its technical standards. RTS 14A says gambling products must not actively encourage customers to chase losses or increase their stake - and a button that turns one spin's stake into a 100x charge sits badly against that wording. RTS 3A, on clear rules before money is committed, was cited too, and the Commission pointed to one game charging over 3,000 pounds to enter its bonus. Six operators pulled the option; feature buys have not appeared on UK-licensed sites since.
Why the button survives offshore
None of the casinos we review answers to the UKGC. Most are Curacao-licensed; Neon54 and Stonevegas sit under Anjouan (Stonevegas disputed, per our review). Neither regime imposes an equivalent restriction, so the button stays live across the offshore market serving Australians - the sites we review included. That a major regulator told its whole market to remove this feature deserves a plain sentence, not a footnote.
The RTP truth - it is decided per title
San Quentin's two numbers
Whether buying pays back more or less than spinning has no single answer; studios set it game by game. Nolimit City's San Quentin returns 96.03% in base play and 96.95% at its top buy tier, so buying is the better-value door there on paper. Other titles run identical maths either way, and some pay back less in buy mode. No universal rule exists.
The only check that works
Open the game's info panel with buy mode selected and read the RTP there. That beats any forum theory about whether buying is "worth it" - the studio has already answered for that title.
What one press does to a bankroll
A hundred spins in a single outcome
A 100x buy compresses a hundred spins' worth of stake into one result. Spread A$100 across a hundred A$1 spins and variance gets a hundred chances to even out; load it onto one bought feature and everything rides on a single round, which can pay 500x or next to nothing. On a game returning about 96% long-run, a 100x buy prices out near 96x on average, and in a high-variance title the typical round lands well below that. Our pokies volatility guide unpacks that trade.
Check your stake before the buy screen
The button bills whatever the game is set to: A$0.20 a spin makes the Gates of Olympus buy A$20; A$5 makes it A$500. Buys that size are high-roller decisions and deserve high-roller bankroll rules - our high roller pokies page covers that territory.
Bonus buys and bonus money do not mix
Casino bonus terms commonly bar feature buying while an offer is being wagered, and pressing the button on bonus funds risks voiding the bonus and anything won from it. The published caps point the same way: Neon54, CrownPlay and Stonevegas all set a A$5 maximum bet while a bonus is active, and no 100x purchase fits inside that. Clear the wagering first - our wagering requirement guide shows the arithmetic - then buy with unrestricted cash.
Finding buy-enabled pokies at our casinos
We have not audited a buy-button filter at each of the ten sites, so we will not invent a per-casino count. Our provider check confirmed that Nolimit City and Pragmatic Play, two of the heaviest shippers of buy builds, appear in all ten lobbies we review, so buy-enabled titles are present across the set. Use the lobby search or "bonus buy" filter; a larger library gives it more to return, and Stonevegas lists the biggest at 12,000+ pokies.
Frequently asked questions
It is a paid shortcut into the feature round. Instead of spinning until scatters land, you pay a fixed multiple of your stake and the bonus round starts on the next spin. Studios also label it feature buy or buy pass; the base game is skipped entirely.
Around 100x your stake is the common price. Gates of Olympus charges exactly that, so a A$1 bet makes the buy A$100. Tiered games go further - Big Bamboo sells entries at 99x, 179x, 300x and 608x the stake. The price scales with your bet.
No Australian law bans the button for players. The 2020 removal came from the UK Gambling Commission and binds UK-licensed sites only. Offshore casinos serving Australians hold Curacao or Anjouan licences, sit outside that rule, and still offer buys. The Interactive Gambling Act restricts operators, not the person playing.
It varies by title, and the studio publishes the answer. San Quentin pays 96.03% in base play and 96.95% on its top buy tier, so buying edges ahead there on paper. Other games return less in buy mode, or the same. Read the info panel with buy mode selected.
Usually not. Bonus terms commonly bar feature buying while wagering is active, and pressing the button on bonus funds risks voiding the offer and its winnings. Several of our casinos also cap bets at A$5 during wagering, which no 100x purchase fits. Clear the wagering, then buy with cash.
Responsible gambling
The UK did not pull this button over paperwork. Its regulator concluded that a control built to multiply a stake a hundredfold in one click pushes players toward the exact behaviours - raising stakes, chasing losses - that turn gambling into harm. The rule does not reach Australia; the warning does. A buy can empty a session bankroll in seconds and invites a second press to win the first one back, and that speed is where the damage lives. Set a cash limit before opening the game, count every buy at its full price, not as one spin, and walk when it is gone. If the button has stopped feeling optional, call Gambling Help Online on 1800 858 858, free, confidential, any hour. 18+. More tools: our responsible gambling page.