Every Bonus-Buy RTP UK Players Can't Access: The Hidden Numbers

What the 2020 Restriction Actually Did

The UKGC's 2020 feature-buy restriction removed bonus-buy from all UK-licensed casinos. In markets where bonus-buy remains available (Malta, Curacao, Isle of Man), players can purchase direct access to the bonus round — often at a higher RTP than the base game. UK players cannot. But the numbers reveal what they are missing.

RTPTrack has compiled the complete bonus-buy RTP table for every major title where this data is publicly available. These figures are not accessible to UK players but understanding them reveals how the game's mathematics actually work.

The Bonus-Buy RTP Premium

Most bonus buys offer a 0.4–1.0 percentage point RTP premium over the base game. The provider achieves this by guaranteeing the bonus round — which carries a higher per-spin return than the base game — while charging a premium entry fee (typically 60–2,000x stake). The player pays more per spin equivalent but receives better mathematics.

This is also why Relax Gaming dialled Money Train 3's buy down to 96.50%: Money Train 2's 98.00% buy was an outlier that the studio chose not to repeat.

The Complete Bonus-Buy RTP Table

Money Train 2 (Relax Gaming): Base 96.40%, Buy 98.00% at 100x stake. The largest bonus-buy premium in the dataset — 1.60pp.

Tombstone RIP (Nolimit City): Base 96.08%, Boothill Buy 97.03% at 3,000x stake. The most expensive bonus buy — £15,000 at the old £5 stake limit.

San Quentin xWays (Nolimit City): Base 96.03%, 5-Scatter Buy 96.95% at 2,000x stake. Base/bonus split: 58.74% base, 37.29% bonus.

Fire in the Hole xBomb (Nolimit City): Base 96.08%, Buy 96.96% at 500x stake.

Mental (Nolimit City): Base 96.08%, Mental FS Buy 96.74% at 1,000x stake.

East Coast vs West Coast (Nolimit City): Base 96.05%, Buy 96.89% at 420x stake.

Punk Rocker (Nolimit City): Base 96.01%, Buy 96.44% at 238x stake.

Wanted Dead or a Wild (Hacksaw Gaming): Base 96.38%, Great Train Robbery Buy 96.27% at 80x, Dead Man's Hand Buy 96.43% at 400x. Notable: the cheapest Wanted buy is one of the only bonus buys with LOWER RTP than base — the 80x cost overcharges relative to the bonus value.

The Nolimit City Pattern

Every Nolimit bonus buy adds 0.4–0.95pp over base. The premium scales with buy cost — more expensive buys (2,000–3,000x) offer a higher premium than cheaper buys (238–500x). This makes mathematical sense: the more expensive feature accesses rarer, higher-value bonus configurations. Hacksaw Gaming follows a similar logic but with one notable inversion on Wanted Dead or a Wild.

What This Means for UK Players

The bonus-buy restriction costs UK players 0.4–1.6pp of accessible RTP on affected titles. The base game returns less than the published RTP suggests because the bonus round (which carries the higher return) triggers less frequently through natural play than through direct purchase. UK players grind the lower-returning base game for longer to access the higher-returning bonus — a mathematical tax on patience that bonus-buy markets avoid.

This is not an argument for removing the UKGC restriction. The responsible-gambling rationale (preventing players from spending £15,000 in a single bonus-buy click at Tombstone RIP) is legitimate. But the mathematical consequence is real and quantifiable.