Over the last decade, bonus buy slots have been a very popular feature at online casinos, due to the fun user experience, and general exciting play of the feature of slot games.
At a practical level, a bonus buy feature lets a player pay a larger upfront stake to jump straight into a bonus round, bypassing base-game spins. That mechanic can sharply increase spend per decision and compress losses into a shorter period. UK regulators increasingly viewed this kind of design as incompatible with safer gambling objectives, especially for online slots, which have consistently been treated as a higher-risk vertical.That is of course with what led to the gambling commission banning these at UK licensed casinos. However, bonus buy slots are still available at non UK licensed casinos.
Early-to-mid 2010s: The Growth of Bonus Buy Slots
In the first half of the 2010s, UK online casino regulation was primarily centered on licensing, fairness, and anti-crime controls, rather than granular restrictions on in-game design. Following the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014 and maturing UKGC oversight, compliance expectations rose and it led to not only credit card payment options being removed but then the option for bonus buy slots.
By the late 2010s, bonus buy features had become commercially important for some studios and operators because they offered high-volatility excitement and more immediate access to “headline” gameplay. But that same immediacy became the core regulatory concern: players could be nudged into larger, more frequent staking decisions than they originally intended.
2020–2021: Changes
The key inflection point came with the Gambling Commission’s package of online slots reforms announced in February 2021 and implemented by 31 October 2021. The Commission targeted structural features associated with harmful intensity: auto-play, spin speeds faster than 2.5 seconds, “illusion of control” mechanics (such as quick-stop style functions), and celebratory effects on losses.
While the 2021 package did not always use consumer-facing language like “bonus buy ban” in headlines, the regulatory logic in the Remote Gambling and Software Technical Standards (RTS) made the direction clear. RTS requirement 14A says products must not actively encourage customers to chase losses, increase stake/amount gambled, or continue after indicating they want to stop. That standard is widely interpreted in compliance practice as incompatible with bonus buy mechanics because they explicitly invite larger immediate stake decisions to accelerate access to high-value features.
So from late 2021 onward, on UK-licensed platforms, the market reality changed: slot products were redesigned, localised UK versions were released without bonus buy options, and operators had to ensure their lobbies and integrations did not expose prohibited mechanics to British customers.
2022–2023: Enforcement Changes
After implementation, the Commission assessed impacts and signalled that the reforms were not symbolic. In its June 2023 assessment, it reiterated that the October 2021 game design changes were introduced specifically to strengthen protections in online slots due to elevated risk characteristics.
This period matters because it confirmed the UK approach was becoming systemic rather than one-off. Bonus buy removal wasn’t an isolated tweak; it was part of a broader model in which regulators examine how product architecture influences behaviour. In other words, compliance moved beyond “is the game mathematically fair?” toward “does the design itself push harmful patterns?”
For studios, this created a dual-track development environment: one version of a game for stricter jurisdictions like Great Britain, and another for markets where bonus buy remains permitted. For operators, it increased responsibility for geo-specific product governance and supplier due diligence.
2023–2025: White Paper Updates
The 2023 Gambling Act Review White Paper and follow-on decisions reinforced the same policy direction: reduce intensity and loss velocity online, especially in slots. The government consultation and subsequent decision set statutory online slot stake limits at £5 per spin for adults 25+ and £2 for 18–24-year-olds.
Although stake caps are technically separate from bonus buy rules, they are philosophically aligned. Both are designed to curb rapid escalation and large-step staking. A bonus buy mechanic, by nature, can function as a de facto high-step spend accelerator; stake caps and design controls together narrow the room for those patterns.
By 2025, further RTS-related design updates were being discussed and implemented across remote games, indicating that slots-era product safety principles are influencing wider casino regulation, not retreating from it.
What changed for players and the industry
For UK players, the main change is straightforward: on properly licensed UK sites, you should not encounter classic bonus buy slot functionality anymore. Instead, access to bonus rounds must come through ordinary game progression under stricter speed and presentation rules.
For operators and developers, the last decade transformed bonus buy from a growth mechanic into a compliance risk. Commercial strategy now depends more on base-game entertainment, transparent UX, and safer design norms than on high-intensity shortcuts.
For policymakers, the bonus buy shift is a case study in modern gambling regulation: rather than banning whole products, regulators increasingly target specific design levers that may amplify harm.
The bottom line
The UK story over the last decade is not merely “bonus buys were allowed, then banned.” It is a broader regulatory evolution from outcome-focused oversight to behaviour-informed product regulation. Bonus buy slots became a casualty of that transition because they sat at the intersection of three trends UK authorities now prioritize: preventing stake escalation, reducing play intensity, and limiting mechanics that can encourage loss-chasing.
Given the trajectory from 2021 reforms through White Paper implementation, the direction of travel is clear: UK online slots are being engineered toward lower-intensity, more controlled play environments—and bonus buy features do not fit that model.
