Contents
Playfina bonus buy pokies: the A$8 mistake
The common mistake with Playfina bonus buy pokies is buying a feature while a deposit bonus is still active. Term 1.5 caps every bet at A$8 during a bonus and says that purchasing any game feature adds to your bet amount.
A feature buy is usually priced as a multiple of your stake, so even a small base bet can turn into one large bet. Go over A$8 and Playfina reserves the right to confiscate the winnings. If you have a bonus running, the Playfina deposit bonus rules come first.
The rule is not hidden in small print only once. It appears in the general bonus terms and again in the cashback and rakeback rules, which name bonus buys, purchased bonus rounds and bet doubling as part of the A$8 limit. Three places, one number.
Where is the Bonus Buy tab in the lobby?
Bonus Buy has its own tab in the top category row, between Roulette and Blackjack, and its own entry in the side menu as Bonus buy. On the homepage it is the third game strip, after Hot Games and New Games, with a View all link.
On a phone, swipe the category tiles under the banner until you reach it. The strip below shows what the tab held when this page was built. The full tab opened with these titles in October, studio names as printed on the tiles:
| Pokie | Studio |
|---|---|
| Chicken Road 2 Bonus | InOut |
| Cyber Gypsies | Belatra |
| Snoop Dogg Dollars | BGaming |
| Gator Hunters | Nolimit City |
| Coin Win Express Hold the Spin | Gamzix |
| 4 Super Hot Pinatas Hold&Win | Clawbuster |
| Sweet Rush Bonanza | Pragmatic Play |
| Fruit Party | Pragmatic Play |
| Mighty Wild Gorilla | VoltEnt |
| Blazing Bullets Hold and Win | Booming Games |
| Wild CashX9990 | BGaming |
| Train Heist Johnny Cash | BGaming |
BGaming had three of the first twelve tiles, more than any other studio. Fruit Party carried the HOT badge. Further down the tab sat Starlight Princess 1000, Sugar Rush Super Scatter and Big Bass Blast, so the big-name feature buys most players search for are there too.
How much does a feature buy cost?
The price is set inside each game, not by Playfina. Most studios show it as a multiple of the current bet, and the number appears on the buy button before you confirm.
Work it out before you press. At a A$0.20 base stake, a 100x buy is A$20. At A$1, the same buy is A$100. Some games offer several buy levels, and the top level can cost several hundred times the stake.
Set that against the A$8 cap and the room is tiny. With a bonus active, a 100x buy is allowed only up to a base stake of A$0.08:
| Base stake | 100x buy costs | Allowed with a bonus active |
|---|---|---|
| A$0.08 | A$8 | Yes, exactly at the cap |
| A$0.10 | A$10 | No, A$2 over |
| A$0.20 | A$20 | No, A$12 over |
| A$1 | A$100 | No, A$92 over |
The second number to look at is the game's return for the bought feature. Some studios publish a separate RTP for the buy option, sometimes higher and sometimes lower than the base game. It sits in the paytable or info screen. If you cannot find it, treat the buy as an expensive spin with an unknown edge.
And budget in buys, not in spins. A$100 is five buys at A$20. Five losing features in a row is ordinary variance on these games, so decide the number of buys before the first one.
- Price: shown in the game as a multiple of your bet. Check the stake first, then the multiple.
- Levels: some pokies sell two or three feature tiers at very different prices.
- Return: look for a separate RTP figure for the bought feature in the info screen.
Can I buy features with bonus money?
Technically the funds are in your balance, but the rules make it a bad idea. With a bonus active, the cap is A$8 per bet and feature purchases count towards it. Cashback and rakeback funds have the same A$8 cap, and their rules name bonus buys and purchased bonus rounds directly.
In practice, buy features only with a balance that has no bonus attached. Playfina spends your real money before the bonus funds, but the A$8 cap covers every bet while the bonus is active, including bets made with your own deposit. So the clean order is to finish the wagering first, then buy features with a balance that carries no bonus. Or skip the bonus on that deposit: only one can be active, and none is forced on you.
| Key fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Min. deposit | A$30 |
| Wagering | x35 |
| Loyalty levels | 175 |
| Top prize | Lamborghini Huracán |
| Lobby tabs | Pokies, Hot, New, Bonus Buy, Jackpot |
Which bonus buy pokies to try first?
Start with the games where the price is easy to read and the stake can go low. A pokie that lets you set A$0.10 or A$0.20 and shows a single 100x button is easier to budget than one with three buy tiers.
Playfina's Bonus Buy strip changes, so the list you see may not match ours. Use three filters instead of a top list.
First, the cost at your stake: at most a fiftieth of your session budget per buy is a sensible ceiling, so A$100 means buys of A$2 or less. Second, the return for the buy, if the studio publishes it. Third, the maximum win. Titles like Wild CashX9990 on the Bonus Buy tab, or Gates of Olympus 2500 and Haunted Coins x5000 on the Hot list, put their cap in the name, and a high cap usually means a wider spread of results.
Chicken Road 2 Bonus from InOut is a different kind of game on the same tab, a step-by-step crash-style title rather than a reel pokie. Read its rules screen before treating it like the others.
For the ordinary pokies around them, see Playfina casino real money play.
- Low stake, one buy level, price visible on the button.
- A published RTP for the bought feature, found in the info screen.
- A buy cost below a fiftieth of your session budget.
Playfina FAQ
Are bonus buy pokies allowed in Australia?
Feature buys are a game function, and the Interactive Gambling Act deals with the operator, not the feature. The real issue is that Playfina itself has no Australian licence, so nothing in Australian law protects these purchases, and BetStop does not cover the site.
Can I use free spins on a bonus buy pokie?
No. Free spins run on the pokie they are linked to, at a set stake. You activate them in the Bonuses tab of your account, and they do not pay for feature purchases.
Does a feature buy count towards wagering?
The buy is a bet, so it counts as an amount wagered. But with a bonus active it must stay within the A$8 bet limit, and excluded games are listed separately in the bonus terms. One A$8 buy against a A$100 bonus covers A$8 of the A$3,500 needed at x35.
Do bonus buys count in Playfina tournaments?
That depends on the card. Playfina's tournament cards set the eligible games and scoring. Check them before buying, since some leaderboards score wins as a multiple of the bet, and a bought feature counts as one large bet.
Is buying the bonus better than spinning for it?
Neither is better on average, and Playfina publishes no figures that would settle it for a given game. Buying gets you to the feature at a fixed price, spinning gets you there at a random cost. Buying concentrates the risk, so the budget runs out faster. A$100 of spins at A$0.50 is 200 rounds; A$100 of 100x buys at the same stake is two features. Same money, far fewer chances to stop while ahead.