Work Out What a Bonus Buy Costs
A bonus buy lets a player pay a fixed multiple of the stake to skip the base game and go straight into the feature round. The price on the button is easy to read, but the real cost sits in the RTP, the volatility and the version of the game a casino has chosen to run. This guide is for players in Ireland who want to put a euro figure on that cost before they press anything, and to understand why a single bought bonus proves very little about a slot.
What You Pay For When You Buy a Bonus
A bonus buy, also sold as a feature buy, replaces the wait for scatter symbols with a single purchase. The price is quoted as a multiple of the base stake, and across the market it typically sits somewhere between 50x and 200x, with some studios offering premium tiers that go well above that.
The multiple is not the cost.
What a player actually gives up, on average, is the purchase price multiplied by the house edge, which is simply what remains after the RTP is taken away from 100%. RTP, or return to player, is the share of all money staked that a game is designed to pay back over a very large number of rounds. If a buy priced at 100x a €1 stake runs at 96.5%, the long-run average loss is €3.50 per purchase, while the other €96.50 is returned across many buys in wildly uneven amounts.
That unevenness is the part the price tag hides. Bought features are built for high volatility, meaning most returns come from a small number of large results, so a single purchase will often pay back a fraction of its cost and occasionally many times it. The average only shows itself over hundreds or thousands of buys, which is far more than any one player makes, and so the €3.50 figure describes the game rather than tonight’s session.
Buying the Feature Against Spinning for It
The same €100 can go into one bought bonus or into a hundred €1 base-game spins. The rows below set the two routes against each other on cost and experience, assuming the published RTP of each mode is close.
Buying the bonus | Spinning the base game |
|---|---|
| Expected loss set by the buy-mode RTP, which some studios list slightly higher than the base game | Expected loss set by the base-game RTP, applied to every spin |
| The whole sum is committed in one click | Spending is paced and can be stopped at any point |
| Guaranteed entry to the feature round | The feature may not trigger within the budget |
| Very high variance from a single result | Variance spread across many smaller results |
Turning the Price Into a Euro Figure
The arithmetic is short enough to do in your head, provided the inputs are the right ones. Most mistakes come from using an RTP figure from a review site rather than the one the casino’s own build displays.
Studios commonly release a slot in several RTP versions, and the operator chooses which to run.
So the same title can return around 96% at one casino and noticeably less at another, with nothing on the lobby tile to show the difference. Some games go further and give the bought feature its own RTP, which may be higher, equal or tiered by price. One industry reference lists Gates of Olympus at 96.00% in the base game and 96.50% for the buy, but that figure applies only to the version it describes, and the screen in front of you is the only one that counts.
Five Steps to Price Any Bonus Buy
Follow this sequence on any slot with a buy button, before staking anything. It takes a couple of minutes and gives a figure you can compare across games.
- Step 1
Open the game's information or help screen
Look for the paytable or rules page inside the slot itself. This is where the studio states the RTP of the version this casino runs, and often a separate figure for each buy option. - Step 2
Note the RTP for the buy mode
If the buy has its own figure, use it. If only one RTP is shown, assume it covers both modes. If no figure appears at all, treat the cost as unknown rather than guessing. - Step 3
Read the price as a stake multiple
Write down the multiple, such as 100x, and the base stake it applies to. Raising the stake before buying raises the price in proportion, so a €2 stake doubles everything that follows. - Step 4
Multiply price by the house edge
Take the RTP away from 100 to get the house edge, then apply it to the euro price. A €200 buy at 96% carries an average cost of €8 over the long run. - Step 5
Set the full price against your budget
The average cost is what the game takes over time, but the full price is what can leave your balance on one purchase. Decide whether losing the whole amount at once is acceptable before buying.
Myths About Bought Bonuses and Luck
Bought features attract more folklore than almost any other slot mechanic, largely because results are big and memorable. Three beliefs come up again and again, and each misreads how a random number generator works.
The game is due a big one
A certified RNG has no memory of previous rounds. Ten poor buys in a row do not make the eleventh more generous; the odds on each purchase are exactly what they were on the first.
One session shows what a game pays
A handful of bought bonuses is far too small a sample to reveal anything about RTP, since high-volatility features can swing hundreds of times the stake either way. Streamed clips make this worse by showing the rare big result and rarely the long run of small ones that came before it.
Results are random.
Buying is always better value
It is only better where the buy mode is published with a higher RTP, and even then the gain is a fraction of a percentage point applied to a large sum. Where the buy carries the same or a lower RTP, buying simply moves the same average loss into fewer and larger events, which suits a bankroll that can absorb sharp drops and punishes one that cannot.
Average Cost by Buy Price and RTP
| Buy price | Cost at €1 stake | Average loss at 96.5% | Average loss at 94% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50x | €50 | €1.75 | €3.00 |
| 100x | €100 | €3.50 | €6.00 |
| 200x | €200 | €7.00 | €12.00 |
| 500x | €500 | €17.50 | €30.00 |
Where Bonus Buy Stands for Irish Players
Rules on the feature differ sharply between markets, and that is why the same slot can show a buy button in one country and none in another. Studios typically ship separate builds for each jurisdiction.
In Great Britain the Gambling Commission required licensed operators to remove feature buy-ins, after finding them at odds with its remote technical standard that bars products from encouraging customers to raise their stake or chase losses. UK builds of games such as White Rabbit Megaways still run, with the purchase option switched off.
Ireland is in a different position. The Gambling Regulation Act 2024 set up the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, which began issuing remote betting licences on 1 July 2026, while licences for remote gaming, which covers online casino games, are being phased in later. Until those casino licences take effect and the authority sets out its own standards for game design, sites serving Irish players run casino products under licences granted elsewhere, and bonus buy remains widely offered. We found no published position from the Irish authority on the feature itself, so readers should not assume either a ban or a permanent green light.
Whatever the rules, the cost arithmetic above stays the same.
Related Terms
Bonus Buy Cost: Common Questions
Is a bonus buy more expensive than playing normally?
Not on average, if both modes share the same RTP. The difference is that the whole price is committed in one go, so short-term swings are much sharper.
Where do I find the RTP of a bought feature?
Open the help or paytable screen inside the slot at your casino. Studios release several RTP versions, so a figure quoted on another website may describe a different build.
Does raising my stake change the buy price?
Yes. The price is a multiple of the base stake, so doubling the stake doubles both the purchase price and the average cost attached to it.
Can a slot be due to pay after several poor buys?
No. A certified random number generator treats every purchase independently, so previous results have no effect on the next one.
Are bonus buys banned in Ireland?
We found no Irish ban. The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland is phasing in casino licensing, and it has not yet published a position on the feature.
More about online casinos
What we check first is whether the buy mode carries its own RTP figure in the game’s information screen. If it matches the base game, the two routes cost the same on average and the real difference is pacing. A player who wants control over spending loses that control the moment the purchase goes through.