Bonus buy pokies let you pay a fixed multiple of your stake, usually 50x to 100x, to skip the base game and start the bonus round straight away. Premium tiers on some games run to 2,000x.
The price moves with your bet. A 100x buy costs A$20 at a 20c stake and A$100 at A$1. The casinos with the largest pokie libraries to find them in are ranked first in this article.
Best-Stocked Casinos for Bonus Buy Pokies
Ranked by size of game library, with withdrawal speed and minimum deposit as tie-breakers.
- Lucky Dreams – The largest library here at 14,000+ games, with a dedicated bonus buy section in the lobby. The welcome bonus runs up to A$10,000 + 500 free spins from a A$2 deposit, and withdrawals take from instant to 5 days.
- PlayMojo – PlayMojo groups its bonus buy pokies in their own category among 12,000+ games, and most titles can be tried in demo mode first. New players can claim up to A$5,000 + 300 free spins from A$25, with withdrawals from instant to 72 hours.
- Neospin – Neospin lists bonus buy as a separate lobby category, and its 8,000+ games include studios known for feature buys, such as Nolimit City, Hacksaw Gaming and Relax Gaming. The welcome offer is 300% up to A$11,000 + 300 free spins from a A$7 deposit. Withdrawals take 0 to 72 hours.
- DragonSlots – A full category of bonus buy pokies sits among 8,000+ games, with Hacksaw Gaming and Nolimit City in the studio mix. Its welcome bonus carries the most free spins on this list, up to A$8,000 + 700 spins from A$20, and withdrawals take from instant to 72 hours.
- Ritzo Casino – Ritzo’s 7,000+ games include titles from Big Time Gaming, the studio behind the first bonus buy, and Hacksaw Gaming. It has the largest welcome bonus here, up to A$18,000 + 325 free spins from A$15. Withdrawals are also the fastest on the list, from instant to 48 hours.
- Spinando – Bonus buy pokies sit alongside Megaways and Hold and Win games in a slots lobby of 7,000+ titles. The welcome offer is A$1,750 + 150 free spins from a A$30 deposit, and withdrawals take 0 to 3 days.
- King Billy – Running since 2017, King Billy is the longest-established casino here, and its lobby filter can show bonus buy games only. Its 6,000+ games include Nolimit City titles. The welcome bonus is up to A$3,000 + 450 free spins from just A$5, and withdrawals take up to 3 days.
- Richard Casino – Richard Casino has a dedicated bonus buy category, and most of its pokies can be played in demo mode before you deposit. It offers 6,000+ games, up to A$5,000 + 500 free spins from A$20, and withdrawals from instant to 3 days.
- Stay Casino – Stay Casino features BGaming’s Elvis Frog series, which includes the bonus buy pokie Elvis Frog Trueways. It has 5,200+ games, up to A$5,000 + 350 free spins from A$20, and withdrawals from instant to 5 days.
- Slotozen – Slotozen sorts its 5,000+ games into categories that include a dedicated bonus buy tab. Its A$0.01 minimum deposit is the lowest here, the welcome offer runs up to A$5,000 + 500 free spins, and withdrawals take 0 to 5 business days.
What Are Bonus Buy Pokies?
A bonus buy, also called a feature buy, is a button that sells you direct entry to a pokie’s bonus round. You pay a set multiple of your current stake, and the feature starts without waiting for scatters to land.
The round is usually free spins, but it can be hold-and-win respins or another feature. The mechanic first appeared in 2017, in Big Time Gaming’s White Rabbit.
What you buy is entry, not a result. A bought round can pay back less than its price. In a few games, such as Genie Jackpot Megaways, a buy doesn’t even guarantee the bonus.
Not every studio offers the feature. Play’n GO pledged in 2021 never to make a bonus buy game.
How to Buy a Bonus on a Pokie
Buying a bonus takes four steps, and the first one decides what you pay:
- Set your stake. The buy price is your stake times the game’s buy multiple, so changing your bet changes the price.
- Open the buy menu and check the price. It’s shown in dollars at your current stake.
- Choose a tier if there’s more than one. Expensive tiers can cap your stake, so the top tier may not be available at your bet.
- Confirm. The cost comes off your balance and the bonus round starts straight away.
A game’s info or paytable screen shows whether it has a buy option and, in many games, the RTP that applies to the buy.
Try It Free in Demo Mode First
Many bonus buy pokies have free-play versions where the buy button works with play credits. That lets you see what a feature costs and how it pays before you use real money.
Types of Bonus Buy
Buys come in several forms, and the type decides what your money gets you:
- Single buy: one price for one bonus. Money Train 2 sells its bonus for 100x.
- Tiered buys: higher prices unlock stronger versions of the feature. San Quentin xWays offers 100x, 400x and 2,000x. Hop’N’Pop offers 100x, 200x and 400x, with volatility rising as the price goes up.
- Choice of bonus: some games let you pick the mode you buy. Champions of Rome offers two free spins modes, Training and Deathmatch.
- Price-reducing tokens: in White Rabbit, coins collected during base play lower the buy price.
- Chance boosters: ante bets and Double Chance options raise each spin’s cost so the bonus triggers more often. Sweet Bonanza’s ante adds 25% to the stake and doubles the chance of free spins. The bonus is never guaranteed.
- Gamble options: Extra Chilli lets you gamble the free spins you bought for a chance at more.
How Much Does a Bonus Buy Cost?
Most bonus buys cost 50x to 100x your stake. The price is always your current bet multiplied by the game’s buy multiple, so a 100x buy at a 50c stake costs A$50.
Premium features cost far more. Machina Megaways charges 337x for 18 spins, Deadwood’s top feature costs 750x, and San Quentin xWays tops out at 2,000x.
Some games cap your stake on the expensive tiers. San Quentin limits the 2,000x buy to a $4 stake, so its biggest single purchase is $8,000.
The Cheapest Bonus Buy Pokies by Real Entry Price
The cheapest bonus buy isn’t simply the one with the lowest multiplier. The real entry price is the game’s minimum stake times its buy price. On that measure, Starburst XXXtreme’s 60x buy at a 10c stake costs about A$6.
| Pokie | Provider | Buy price | Min stake | Cheapest entry | Max win |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starburst XXXtreme | NetEnt | 60x | A$0.10 | A$6 | 17,770x |
| Fat Santa | Push Gaming | 80x | A$0.10 | A$8 | 6,400x |
| Punk Rocker | Nolimit City | 80x | A$0.10 | A$8 | 15,000x |
| Top Dawgs | Relax Gaming | 90x | A$0.10 | A$9 | 25,000x |
| Fire in the Hole xBomb | Nolimit City | 60x | A$0.20 | A$12 | 60,000x |
| Fruit Party 2 | Pragmatic Play | 100x | A$0.20 | A$20 | 150,000x |
Minimum stakes are the games’ own. A casino can set a higher minimum, which raises the entry price.
Fire in the Hole xBomb shares Starburst XXXtreme’s 60x multiple but costs twice as much to enter, because its minimum stake is 20c. The cheapest buys also have lower ceilings. The four buys under A$10 cap out between 6,400x and 25,000x. Fruit Party 2 costs A$20 to enter but can pay up to 150,000x.
Popular Bonus Buy Slots
These seven titles show how widely buy prices and payout ceilings vary between games.
| Pokie | Provider | Buy price | RTP | Max win |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Money Train 2 | Relax Gaming | 100x | 96.40% | 50,000x |
| Dead or Alive 2 | NetEnt | 66x | 96.80% | 111,111x |
| San Quentin xWays | Nolimit City | 100x / 400x / 2,000x | 96.03% | 150,000x |
| Mental | Nolimit City | Up to 2,000x | 96.09% | 66,666x |
| Hop’N’Pop | Hacksaw Gaming | 100x / 200x / 400x | 96.20% | 12,500x |
| Extra Chilli | Big Time Gaming | From 50x | 96.82% | 20,000x |
| Nitropolis | ELK Studios | 100x / 300x | 96.10% | 10,000x |
Does Buying the Bonus Change the RTP?
Often it does, and usually upwards. Top Dawgs rises from 96.10% to 96.71% when you buy. San Quentin xWays goes from 96.03% to 96.95% on its 2,000x tier. Hop’N’Pop keeps the same RTP at every buy price.
The gain is small in dollars. A A$90 Top Dawgs buy (90x at A$1) has a theoretical return of about A$87.04 at 96.71%, against A$86.49 at 96.10%. That’s roughly 55 cents more per buy.
RTP is a long-run average. A single bought round can pay many times its price or a fraction of it.
Are Bonus Buy Pokies Worth It?
It comes down to whether you value fast access to the feature more than playing time.
Pros
- You skip long dry spells. In one example game, free spins trigger about once every 100 spins naturally but can be bought for 70x.
- The RTP on a buy is often slightly higher than in base play.
- Tiered buys let you choose how much risk to take on.
Cons
- Each purchase is a large single outlay, and the round can return less than you paid.
- Money goes faster. The same RTP applied to a 100x purchase every few minutes means a bigger expected loss per hour than spinning at your base stake.
Are Bonus Buy Pokies Allowed in Australia?
No Australian-licensed online casino offers bonus buy pokies. The Interactive Gambling Act bars real money online pokies being provided to people in Australia, so the feature is only found at offshore casinos.
Some other countries have restricted the feature itself. The UK Gambling Commission found six operators offering feature buy-ins, one charging more than £3,000 for a single bonus, and all six removed the option. The Dutch regulator has also banned bonus buys.