On this page
- What is a bonus buy pokie?
- How much does a bonus buy cost in Australian dollars?
- Is the RTP different when you buy the bonus?
- Which bonus buy pokies can Australians play?
- Which casinos have the biggest Bonus Buy sections for Australians?
- Can you use bonus money on feature buys?
- Is buying the bonus better than spinning for it?
- How do I check the buy price and RTP before I press the button?
- Why are some bonus buy pokies missing for Australians?
- Do bonus buys work with Megaways and tumble pokies?
- Is it legal to play bonus buy pokies in Australia?
- What is my verdict on bonus buy pokies?
Bonus buy pokies let you pay a fixed price, usually a multiple of your spin bet, to jump straight into the feature round. For Australians, SpinsUp has the biggest Bonus Buy section we counted with 3,064 games, just ahead of FortunePlay at 3,048 and ReelsOn at 2,337. Buy prices are shown in each game, and bonus funds often cannot be used on them.
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1
SpinsUp
4.3/5Welcome bonusUp to A$5,000 + 300 free spinsOver 4 deposits- 2,000+ jackpot pokies
- 3,000+ bonus buy pokies
- Instant crypto payouts
18+ | New players only | Wagering 40x bonus | Terms apply, check the casino site before you deposit. -
2
FortunePlay
4.4/5Welcome bonusUp to A$5,000 + 300 free spinsOver 4 deposits- 3,000+ bonus buy pokies
- 10 cryptos
- MiFinity and Apple Pay
18+ | New players only | Wagering 40x bonus | Terms apply, check the casino site before you deposit. -
3
ReelsOn
4.0/5Welcome bonusUp to A$4,500 + 185 free spinsA$7,500 + 200 spins on the high roller route- 5,700+ pokies
- 1,500+ jackpot titles
- 9 cryptos
18+ | New players only | Wagering 40x | Terms apply, check the casino site before you deposit. -
4
CrazyTower
4.4/5Welcome bonusUp to A$21,300 + 400 free spinsOver 4 deposits- 8,500+ pokies
- 35x wagering
- USDT bonus option
18+ | New players only | Wagering 35x deposit + bonus | Terms apply, check the casino site before you deposit. -
5
7aBet
4.0/5Welcome bonusUp to A$7,000 + 700 free spinsOver 4 deposits- Play'n GO and Yggdrasil
- Apple Pay and Google Pay
- Sportsbook included
18+ | New players only | Wagering 40x bonus | Terms apply, check the casino site before you deposit.
This guide is about one button: the one that says Buy Bonus, Feature Buy or Bonus Hunt. I cover what it actually costs in Australian dollars, what the maths says about your expected return, why so many welcome bonuses stop you using it, and which casinos that accept Australians have a dedicated Bonus Buy section worth browsing.
Every lobby count below comes from our own checks of each casino from an Australian IP in September 2026. Every game figure comes from the studio’s own page. Where a number could not be confirmed, I say so rather than guess. For the wider picture of every mechanic we track, start at the pokies games hub.
What is a bonus buy pokie?
A bonus buy pokie is a game with an option to purchase its feature round directly instead of waiting for scatters to trigger it. You pay a set price, normally quoted as a multiple of your current bet, and the game drops you into free spins or the bonus game on the next screen.
On a standard pokie, the free spins round might land once every couple of hundred spins, sometimes far less often. You fund all the dead spins in between. A feature buy cuts out that wait. You pay one lump sum and go straight to the part of the game where the big multipliers live.
Studios label it differently. Hacksaw Gaming calls it Bonus Buy on its game pages. BGaming lists Buy Bonus as a feature on Book of Cats. Some games offer more than one buy, such as a cheaper standard bonus and a pricier enhanced one with better odds of the top multipliers.
The price is not random. It is set by the studio so that the feature, on average, returns roughly what you pay for it minus the house edge. That is the most important thing to understand about the button, and I will come back to it with real numbers.
A bonus buy does not make a pokie more generous. It makes the same game faster and lumpier. You skip the base game, you pay for the feature up front, and the result swings far harder per dollar than normal spins.
How much does a bonus buy cost in Australian dollars?
The buy price is shown inside each game and scales with your bet. Prices of around 100x the spin bet are common, so at A$1 a spin a buy would cost about A$100, and at A$0.20 about A$20. The studios we checked do not publish buy prices on their game pages, so always read the in-game figure before you press it.
I opened the official pages for Wanted Dead or a Wild and Chaos Crew on hacksawgaming.com. Both confirm the Bonus Buy feature exists, but neither lists the price. BGaming’s Book of Cats page names Buy Bonus as a feature, again without a price. So the multiplier you see in the game is the only figure that counts, and it can differ between versions of the same title.
Here is what the arithmetic looks like at typical example multiples. These are illustrations of how the cost scales, not quoted prices for any specific game.
| Spin bet | Buy at 50x | Buy at 100x | Buy at 200x | Buy at 400x |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A$0.20 | A$10 | A$20 | A$40 | A$80 |
| A$0.50 | A$25 | A$50 | A$100 | A$200 |
| A$1.00 | A$50 | A$100 | A$200 | A$400 |
| A$2.00 | A$100 | A$200 | A$400 | A$800 |
| A$5.00 | A$250 | A$500 | A$1,000 | A$2,000 |
Look at the bottom row. A player who is comfortable spinning at A$5 can spend A$500 on a single click at 100x. That is the trap most people fall into. The bet size feels familiar, but the buy multiplies it by a figure you are not used to thinking about.
My rule is simple. I decide the buy price I am willing to lose in one go, then work backwards to the spin bet. If A$20 is my ceiling and the game charges 100x, my bet is A$0.20. Never the other way round.
Is the RTP different when you buy the bonus?
It can be. Some studios set the bought feature at a slightly different RTP to the base game, and the figure is usually listed in the game’s info screen. The studio pages we checked list only overall RTP settings, so check the info screen for the buy RTP and the version your casino runs.
Return to player is the long run percentage of stakes a game pays back. At 96%, the maths expects A$96 back for every A$100 wagered, over a very large number of rounds. Any one session can land far above or far below.
The RTP we show is the studio’s top setting. Casinos can choose lower versions of many games. Hacksaw’s own page for Wanted Dead or a Wild lists four settings: 96.38%, 94.55%, 92.33% and 88.42%. Chaos Crew lists 96.30%, 92.40% and 88.40%. The game looks identical at every setting. Only the info screen tells you which one you are on.
That matters more with bonus buys than with normal spins, because you are pushing more money through the game per minute. Here is the expected cost of one A$100 buy at each of the Wanted Dead or a Wild settings, assuming the buy returns the game’s listed RTP:
| RTP setting | Expected return on A$100 | Expected loss per buy | Expected loss over 20 buys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 96.38% | A$96.38 | A$3.62 | A$72.40 |
| 94.55% | A$94.55 | A$5.45 | A$109.00 |
| 92.33% | A$92.33 | A$7.67 | A$153.40 |
| 88.42% | A$88.42 | A$11.58 | A$231.60 |
The gap between the top and bottom settings is more than three times the expected loss. If you plan to buy features at all, checking the RTP line in the info screen first is the single most useful habit you can build. Our high RTP pokies guide explains how to find it on different studios’ games.
The buy button never changes the house edge in your favour. It only changes how fast you meet it.
Which bonus buy pokies can Australians play?
From the games we track on studio pages, three list a bonus buy option: Wanted Dead or a Wild (96.38% top RTP, 12,500x max), Chaos Crew (96.30%, 10,000x) and Book of Cats (96.99%, 8,202x). Availability depends on the casino, because some lobbies hide Hacksaw Gaming from Australian players.
- Wanted Dead or a WildHacksaw Gaming
- RTP
- 96.38%
- Volatility
- 4/5
- Max win
- 12,500x
- Mechanic
- Bonus Buy
Play at CrazyTower (18+) - Chaos CrewHacksaw Gaming
- RTP
- 96.30%
- Volatility
- 5/5
- Max win
- 10,000x
- Mechanic
- Bonus Buy
Play at CrazyTower (18+) - Book of CatsBGaming
- RTP
- 96.99%
- Volatility
- Very-high
- Max win
- 8,202x
- Mechanic
- Bonus Buy
Play at FortunePlay (18+)
Wanted Dead or a Wild is a Hacksaw Gaming title with 15 paylines, volatility of 4 out of 5 on Hacksaw’s own scale and a stated max win of 12,500x. Its bonus rounds build up Wild symbols and multipliers before a Showdown phase adds them to the reels. The studio page confirms the Bonus Buy option.
Chaos Crew is also Hacksaw, with 19 paylines and volatility at the top of the scale, 5 out of 5. Max win is 10,000x. The bonus round collects multiplier symbols and pays their total value times your wager at the end. This is about as swingy as mainstream pokies get, which makes a buy even more of a coin toss.
Book of Cats is a BGaming game rated very high volatility, with a top RTP of 96.99% and a max multiplier of 8,202x. BGaming lists Buy Bonus among its features. Of the three, it has the highest top RTP, which is why it is my pick for anyone wanting to try a feature buy at small stakes.
We have not verified buy prices or bought feature RTPs for these three, because the studio pages do not list them. Open the game’s info screen and paytable before you buy, and confirm the RTP version your casino has loaded.
For a closer look at the two studios behind these games, see our Hacksaw Gaming pokies and BGaming pokies pages.
Which casinos have the biggest Bonus Buy sections for Australians?
SpinsUp shows a Bonus Buy collection of 3,064 games from an Australian IP, FortunePlay 3,048 and ReelsOn 2,337. 7aBet has a Bonus Buy category of 1,118 titles, though that count is not filtered for Australia. CrazyTower has 647, but it is one of the few with Hacksaw Gaming visible to Australians.
The counts below come from each site’s own game collections during our September 2026 checks. A bigger section is not automatically better. What matters is whether the studios you actually want to play are switched on for Australia.
| Casino | Bonus Buy section | Total pokies | Max bet while wagering | Our score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SpinsUp | 3,064 games | 7,613 | A$7.50 | 4.3 / 5 |
| FortunePlay | 3,048 games | 7,440 | A$7.50 | 4.4 / 5 |
| ReelsOn | 2,337 games | 5,777 | A$7.50 | 4.0 / 5 |
| 7aBet | 1,118 titles (not AU filtered) | About 4,473 casino games | A$10, buys banned with bonus funds | 4.0 / 5 |
| CrazyTower | 647 games | 8,569 | A$150 | 4.4 / 5 |
SpinsUp
SpinsUp had the largest Bonus Buy collection we counted, at 3,064 games, inside a pokies lobby of 7,613. It also shows 2,059 jackpot games, 96 Hold and Win games and 10 Megaways. The biggest studios by count for Australia were KA Gaming, VoltEnt, BGaming, TaDa Gaming and CT Interactive.
The catch: Pragmatic Play, NetEnt and Evolution were absent for our Australian IP. So the 3,064 figure is heavy on smaller studios. Wagering on the welcome package is 40x the bonus with a A$7.50 max bet, and the site is licensed by the Tobique Gaming Commission, operated by Novatrix SRL in Costa Rica.
FortunePlay
FortunePlay is a sister site to SpinsUp, with the same operator and licence, and its Bonus Buy section is almost identical in size at 3,048 games. Its pokies collection is 7,440, with 50 jackpot games plus Megaways, Hold and Win and Drops and Wins sections.
Top studios are KA Gaming, VoltEnt, BGaming, TaDa Gaming and CT Interactive, with Yggdrasil further down the list at 163 games. Wagering is 40x the bonus with a A$7.50 max bet while wagering. Daily withdrawal cap is A$3,000, which matters if a bought feature hits big.
ReelsOn
ReelsOn showed 2,337 bonus buy titles in a pokies collection of 5,777 for Australia, plus a Bonus Friendly section of 4,168 games and a High RTP filter. That Bonus Friendly tag is useful, because it points you at games the casino is happy to have you use while wagering.
No Pragmatic Play, NetEnt, Evolution or Play’n GO appeared in the provider list for our Australian IP. Wagering is 40x with a A$7.50 max bet and only five days to clear. Withdrawals are capped at A$3,000 a day.
7aBet
7aBet runs a dedicated Australian market and has a Bonus Buy category of 1,118 titles, but that count comes from the site’s content system and is not filtered for Australia. Pragmatic Play, Hacksaw and Relax were hidden for the Australian market in our checks, so the real number available to you is lower.
It is also the one casino where the terms spell it out: feature buy is not allowed with bonus funds. Max bet while wagering is A$10 and wagering is 40x the bonus. The lobby leans on Play’n GO, Yggdrasil and Novomatic classics instead. 7aBet names no regulator or licence number on its site.
CrazyTower
CrazyTower’s Bonus Buys category is smaller, at 647 games. But it had 348 Hacksaw Gaming titles visible for our Australian IP, the studio behind two of the three buy games we track. If Hacksaw is what you are after, this is where I would look first.
The trade off is serious. CrazyTower shows no licence and names no operating company anywhere on its site. The max bet while a bonus is active is A$150, far higher than rivals. Wagering is 35x deposit plus bonus, and daily withdrawal caps start at A$800 for new players.
CrownSlots lists a Bonus Games section of 2,626 titles and 7Bit Casino has a Bonus Buy collection. Both show a banner asking visitors to confirm they are outside Australia, and 7Bit marks 89 providers unavailable for Australia. For that reason neither appears in our rankings.
Can you use bonus money on feature buys?
Often not. 7aBet’s terms say feature buy is not allowed with bonus funds. Most other casinos cap your bet at A$7.50 to A$10 while wagering, and a single buy usually costs far more than that. Treat any bonus buy made with bonus money as a likely breach unless the terms clearly allow it.
This is where I see Australians lose winnings most often. A player claims a match bonus, spots the Buy Bonus button and hits it. The feature pays well. Then the withdrawal is refused because the terms were broken.
There are two ways the rules can catch you. The first is a direct ban, as at 7aBet. The second is the max bet rule. SpinsUp, FortunePlay and ReelsOn cap bets at A$7.50 while wagering. At 100x, any bet above A$0.075 would push the buy price over that cap. We could not confirm from the public terms whether each of those casinos treats the buy price as a single bet, so I would assume it does.
Our research on other offshore brands found similar wording. One set of general bonus terms we read sets an A$8 max bet with an active bonus and states the cap includes feature buys. That casino is not in our ranking, but it shows the direction the industry has gone.
- Finish or forfeit the bonus first. Clear the wagering with normal spins inside the max bet, or cancel the bonus in your account before you buy anything.
- Read the excluded games list. Some casinos exclude specific pokies from wagering entirely, so a buy on one of them contributes nothing.
- Check the max bet line. If the buy price is higher than it, do not press the button while a bonus is active.
- Play buys with cash only. Real money balance, no active promotion, is the only clean way to use the feature.
For the full breakdown of how turnover rules work on pokies, including game weighting and bet caps, read our pokies wagering requirements guide or the pokies bonuses hub.
Is buying the bonus better than spinning for it?
Not in terms of value. Over the long run both paths return roughly the game’s RTP. What changes is speed and swing: a buy spends the equivalent of dozens or hundreds of spins in one click, so your balance moves much faster in both directions. It suits a small, planned budget, not chasing losses.
Think of a A$100 budget at A$1 a spin. Spinning, that is 100 base game spins with maybe a feature somewhere in there, maybe not. Buying at 100x, it is one feature. Same money, same expected loss at the same RTP, very different experience.
With spins you get time on the reels and small wins that keep you going. With a buy you get one result. It might be 20x your bet, a loss of A$80. It might be 500x, a A$400 profit. Very high volatility games like Chaos Crew and Book of Cats make that spread wider still.
Where buys genuinely suit a player is when the base game bores them and they only enjoy the feature. If that is you, and you have set a budget you can lose in one go, a buy is a legitimate way to play. Our pokies volatility guide explains why the same budget can last minutes on one game and hours on another.
Why players like bonus buys
- Straight to the feature round with no dead spins
- Price shown up front, so the cost is clear
- Big multipliers are reachable in one click
- Useful for trying a new game’s bonus before committing
Why I stay cautious
- Money goes through much faster than normal spins
- No better RTP, and sometimes a lower version is loaded
- Usually banned or capped while a bonus is active
- Very easy to chase a bad result with another buy
How do I check the buy price and RTP before I press the button?
Open the game, set your spin bet, then tap the Buy Bonus button without confirming. The game shows the exact price in dollars. Then open the info or paytable screen and look for the RTP line, which often shows a separate figure for the bought feature. Only then decide.
- Set your bet to the smallest size. Buy prices scale with the bet, so start low and see the lowest price.
- Tap Buy but do not confirm. Nearly every buy screen shows the price and asks for a second click. Read the figure in A$.
- Open the info screen. Find the RTP line. Compare it with the studio’s top setting, such as 96.38% for Wanted Dead or a Wild.
- Check your balance type. Make sure no bonus is active, or you risk the rules above.
- Decide how many buys you will make. Write the number down. When it is used, stop.
If the casino’s version sits well under the studio’s top RTP, I would play something else. With thousands of bonus buy titles in the bigger lobbies, there is no reason to accept an 88% setting.
Why are some bonus buy pokies missing for Australians?
Because several casinos switch off whole studios for Australian players. In our checks SpinsUp showed no Pragmatic Play, 7aBet hid Pragmatic Play, Hacksaw and Relax, and ReelsOn listed no Pragmatic, NetEnt or Play’n GO. NetEnt is blocked for Australia at several casinos. Search a lobby for the exact game before depositing.
This catches people out constantly. A streamer plays a Hacksaw game with a buy, you sign up somewhere with a huge Bonus Buy count, and the game is not there. The section is full of other studios’ titles.
Studio blocks change, and they are set per country. So I treat a lobby count as a starting point only. Before depositing, I search the lobby for the exact game I want.
It is worth saying that popular land based titles are a separate story. Aristocrat games such as Lightning Link, Dragon Link, Queen of the Nile and Buffalo are not offered online for real money to Australians, and their online versions are free social apps. There is no real money bonus buy version of them. If that style is your thing, our Hold and Win pokies page covers the online alternatives.
Do bonus buys work with Megaways and tumble pokies?
Many do, because the buy option is set per game rather than per mechanic. The studio decides whether a title has a buy. Of the games we track with verified data, the buy option is confirmed on the studio page for Wanted Dead or a Wild, Chaos Crew and Book of Cats only.
You will see buy buttons on Megaways games, tumble pokies and cluster pays games in the big lobbies. I have not listed specific Megaways or tumble games as having a buy here, because the studio pages we opened for them did not confirm one. When the button is there, the same rules apply: check the price, check the RTP, never with bonus funds.
If you like the variable reels, our Megaways pokies guide covers the ways maths and the casinos with the deepest Megaways sections.
Is it legal to play bonus buy pokies in Australia?
Offering online casino games to people in Australia is illegal under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, and that includes bonus buy pokies. Players are not prosecuted, but every casino here is licensed offshore, not in Australia, so local protection is limited and ACMA can block the sites.
That means if a casino refuses a withdrawal after a big bought feature, there is no Australian regulator to complain to. The licences we found are from the Tobique Gaming Commission for SpinsUp, FortunePlay and ReelsOn. CrazyTower and 7aBet name no regulator at all.
I would never use a VPN to reach a site that blocks Australia, and you should not either. It breaks almost every casino’s terms and is a fast way to have winnings confiscated. Stick to sites that accept Australians openly, and read the way we rate casinos if you want to see what we check.
What is my verdict on bonus buy pokies?
Bonus buys are a faster, more volatile way to play the same game, not a better deal. Use them with cash, never with bonus funds, at a bet size where one buy is money you are fine losing. For lobby size I would start at SpinsUp or FortunePlay; for Hacksaw titles, CrazyTower, with its licensing gaps in mind.
My own approach: I cap buys at a fixed number per session, check the RTP line every time, and walk away the moment a bonus is active. Most of the horror stories I hear start with a bonus balance and a buy button.
If you want the numbers side by side, the table at the top of this page ranks the five casinos by the size of their Bonus Buy section for Australians. Every count there was checked from an Australian IP in September 2026.
Bonus buys make it very easy to spend quickly. Set a deposit limit before you play and stop when it is gone. If gambling stops being fun, call Gambling Help Online on 1800 858 858 for free, confidential support, or self-exclude from licensed Australian wagering providers through BetStop at betstop.gov.au. More tools are on our responsible gambling page.
Frequently asked questions
What does feature buy mean on a pokie?
Feature buy is the same thing as bonus buy or buy bonus. It is a button that lets you pay a fixed price, set as a multiple of your spin bet, to start the free spins or bonus game immediately rather than waiting for scatter symbols to trigger it naturally.
Can I get my winnings from a bonus buy withdrawn normally?
Yes, provided you bought the feature with your own cash balance and broke no bonus terms. Winnings go to your real money balance like any other win. Daily withdrawal caps still apply, for example A$3,000 a day at FortunePlay, SpinsUp and ReelsOn.
Why is there no buy button on a game I know has one?
Some casinos remove the buy option in certain countries or on certain game versions, and some studios are hidden for Australia entirely. If the button is missing, the casino is running a version without it. Check another casino's lobby rather than assuming the feature was removed.
Are bonus buy pokies available on mobile?
Yes. The casinos we checked run responsive mobile sites, and bonus buy games load in the phone browser with the same buy button. The price confirmation screen is smaller on a phone, so read the A$ figure carefully before you tap confirm.
Does buying the bonus raise my chance of the max win?
Per round, yes, because you are always in the feature where top multipliers land. Per dollar, not really, because the buy price reflects that. A max win such as 12,500x on Wanted Dead or a Wild stays extremely rare whichever way you reach the feature.
Should I buy bonuses while clearing a welcome offer?
I would not. 7aBet bans feature buys with bonus funds, and SpinsUp, FortunePlay and ReelsOn cap bets at A$7.50 while wagering, which almost any buy exceeds. Clear the offer with normal spins, or cancel it, before touching the buy button.
Dean Maddox
Dean Maddox is the Pokies Analyst at Online Pokies Insider, based in Perth, WA. He tests online pokies lobbies from an Australian connection, reads every line of the bonus terms, checks RTP in game info screens and times withdrawals where he can, then scores each casino on nine fixed checks.