UK Regulations & Slot Buy Features

G’day! Now, you should already know all about buy bonuses (thanks to our last blog post) – but did you know they were banned in the UK? Let’s take a look at the whys and wherefores, Wombat fans…

The bonus buy feature has been around for a while, first seen in Extra Chilli slot, you will find them in many a game nowadays, including our favourites; Rainbow Riches, Joyful Joker Megaways, Starburst Extreme, and almost all of the Nolimit City releases.

And they make an excellent addition to your overall game play by allowing you to skip straight to a game’s main bonus feature.

But sadly UK players are ineligible to get in on the action…

What are the UK regulations?

In 2019, the UK Gambling Commission announced a whole heap of new changes to do with slots, including a total ban on buy features.

The regulations were put in place because there were concerns that bonus buy ins were encouraging players to spend much more cash than they’d intended to, or could actually afford to do.

So does the UKGC have a point? Well, if players looking to buy straight into the Free Spins feature they can pay anywhere from 100-350x  your bet – which is a ruddy hefty chunk. And, as you know, we are all about safe gambling here at wombatcasino.com, so we get where they are coming from…

As a result of the new rules, software developers were forced to delete the feature from all their games in UK casinos which set them back a pretty penny! And UK- based slot developers have stopped adding them to the arsenal of bonus extras at all…

Still, there’s need to be too disheartened – there are still some cool features you can pay for that will up the ante of your game play- without damaging your wallet. And best of all; they are all completely legal!

Bonus Buy Alternatives

Buy Reel Re-spins

New releases like Legacy Of Oz, firm favourite Break Da Bank Again Re-spins, and old Microgaming classics like Bikini Party and Dragon Dance all come with option to pay to re-spin a reel.

The benefit of this feature is you can freeze reels while spinning others as you hunt down the (often) elusive Free Spins scatter.

And it only cost you a handful of coins to do so. Bonza!

Extra Scatters or Wilds

UK based players can still purchase extra scatter icons or wilds  – as this does not guarantee entry into Free Spins (so it can’t be classed as illegal).

Plus, it is significantly less expensive, Wombat fans!

One such slot is Book of King Arthur slot where you can part with extra cash and get a boost with expanding wilds on the reels. There’s also the Super Bet option in the Foxin’ Wins series. Here, the more pup wilds you add to the reels, the bigger the payouts will be – but you will rarely pay more than 50 coins extra to make it happen.

Microgaming’s Stumpy McDoodles slot, Hotline 2 and Iron Dog Studios’ Tiny Little Gods also comes with similar extras – where you pay a small amount to increase your chance of bigger wins.

Gamble Features

Other slots will allow you to gamble in a bonus round for a chance to double or quadruple your cash win, scoop even more free spins, even to purchase an upgrade.

These options carry much less risk, are much more affordable and they are still (for the moment) available in the UK. Although don’t forget, it’s always possible to lose the lot in these kinds of extras…

Try Raging Rhino slot, Rich Wilde & the Amulet of Dead, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire or the free spin gamble in both Reel King Megaways and Cops ‘N’ Robbers Megaways. Here you’ll have the option to collect your win,
gamble for a bigger pay-out or gamble for 5 free spins.

So there we go! Any other questions and you can drop a line to the UKGC.