Bonus buy features let you skip the base game entirely. Pay 100x your bet, get instant access to free spins. No waiting, no grinding—just straight to the bonus round where big wins happen.
Sounds efficient. Why waste time on base game when I could jump directly to the action?
I tested this with €100, buying nothing but bonus features across different slots. No regular spins. Pure bonus purchasing to see if it delivered better returns than natural play.
The results surprised me.
Boo Casino New Zealand features extensive bonus buy slots in their 3,500+ game library from providers like Pragmatic Play and Nolimit City. Their NZ$5 minimum deposits made testing accessible, though I quickly learned that bonus buying follows brutal mathematics regardless of platform.
The Purchase Plan
Ten bonus buys, €10 each. I chose popular volatile titles where one good feature could theoretically return 500x or more. My buy-in costs ranged from 80x to 120x depending on the game. I tracked every purchase: cost, spins awarded, total return, and whether it beat the buy-in price.
Purchases 1-3: The Mixed Start
Big Bass Bonanza (€10 buy): Returned €4.20. The fishing symbols never appeared during my 10 free spins. Lost €5.80 immediately.
The Dog House Megaways (€10 buy): Returned €18.60. Sticky wilds appeared on reels 2 and 4, stayed throughout, accumulated decent wins. First profit. Up €8.60.
Sugar Rush (€10 buy): Returned €3.10. Thirty free spins that never built multipliers above 3x. Biggest disappointment despite longest feature. Lost €6.90.
Running total after three: -€4.10
The Pattern Emerges
Bonus rounds bought feel different than bonus rounds earned. When you trigger naturally after 200 spins, any return feels like a win because you’re playing with base game cushion. When you buy the feature, you’re immediately down 100x and need significant returns just to break even.
Each bonus buy spin carries €10 of real money directly at risk with no safety net.
Purchases 4-7: The Brutal Stretch
Wanted Dead or a Wild: €2.80 return (-€7.20) Money Train 2: €8.40 return (-€1.60) Buffalo King Megaways: €5.50 return (-€4.50) Reactoonz: €1.90 return (-€8.10)
Four consecutive losing purchases. Reactoonz was worst—just €1.90 back on a €10 buy. The cascading mechanic that creates charge-ups completely failed.
Running total after seven purchases: -€25.50
I’d spent €70 and was down €25.50. Three purchases remained.
Purchase 8: Gates of Olympus – The Game Changer
Cost: €10 Free spins: 15 Total return: €47.30
Finally, a big hit. Multiple 5x, 8x, and one 25x multiplier dropped during the feature. Wins kept connecting with high multipliers.
This single purchase flipped my entire test positive. Up €37.30 on this buy alone.
Running total: +€11.80
The Final Two
Gonzo’s Quest Megaways: €6.70 return (-€3.30) Book of Dead: €12.50 return (+€2.50)
Final totals: €100 spent buying 10 features. Total returned: €110.10. Net profit: €10.10.
The Real Cost Analysis
A 10% return sounds acceptable until you realize one purchase (Gates of Olympus returning €47.30) created all my profit. Without that single lucky hit, I’d have lost €27.20 on €100 spent—a 27% loss rate.
This reveals bonus buying’s core problem: you’re entirely dependent on that one big hit. Natural play spreads risk across hundreds of spins. Bonus buying concentrates all risk into 10-15 purchased spins.
Before making this mistake repeatedly, understanding mechanics helps. You can learn more about how bonus features work through risk-free play—testing which games deliver consistent value versus those requiring rare perfect storms to profit.
What Regular Play Would’ve Done
For comparison, I played €100 naturally across the same slots without buying features. Results: triggered 6 bonus rounds naturally, plus base game hits throughout. Total returned: €111.60.
Slightly better than bonus buying (€111.60 vs €110.10), but natural play lasted 4 hours. Bonus buying lasted 45 minutes. Both returned roughly the same, but natural play provided 5x more entertainment time.
The Payment Method Factor
I used Apple Pay casino in Canada equivalent instant deposits for this test. The instant access enabled impulsive bonus buying—I could load €10 and immediately purchase without friction or delay to reconsider.
That convenience is dangerous. The easier it is to fund purchases, the faster you burn money chasing that one magical feature.
The Biggest Mistake
My biggest error was thinking I could outsmart slot mathematics by skipping to “where the action is.”
When I hit that €47.30 on purchased Gates of Olympus, it felt less satisfying than a €20 natural trigger would have. I’d paid €10 for it—it wasn’t earned, it was bought. The emotional payoff diminished.
My Current Stance
I don’t buy bonus features anymore. The math works against it, the experience feels hollow, and the amplified volatility creates more stress than entertainment.
That €100 test taught me that slot entertainment comes from the journey, not the destination. If you’re considering bonus buying, ask yourself: would I rather play 1,000 spins over several sessions or buy 10 features in 45 minutes? The answer reveals whether bonus buying suits your playing style.
