The short answer is, maybe.
Earlier this week, I was playing Pragmatic Play’s Madame Destiny Megaways slot, which has a Buy Free Spins feature. I decided to conduct a little experiment to see if buying free spins would end up costing me more or less than triggering the free spins feature organically (triggering free spins naturally by playing the game).
I don’t know if you’ve ever conducted a similar experiment or if you’ve even gone the Buy-Free-Spins route, but I was surprised at what I learned from my experience.
This week’s post on Mia’s iGaming Journey blog (that’s me! If you’re new here, Hi! 👋), is all about the Buy Free Spins slot feature, my experience with it, and my opinions about it.
My Buy Free Spins Experience
Before I get into my experience with this feature, I’ll give you some info about it, in case this is the first time you’ve heard of it.
What is the Buy Free Spins feature?
Buy Free Spins is a feature that lets you purchase a game’s free spins bonus round for a certain amount of money. Once purchased, the free spins bonus round is immediately triggered and plays out as it naturally would if you had triggered it on a spin.
The feature – if available – is usually located on the left-hand side of the slot’s reels (see screenshot below).
What’s the benefit of it?
Instead of having to spin the reels over and over again for who knows how many times, you can buy the feature and immediately activate it. Although there is no guarantee you’ll win anything (especially not anything big), you usually do win something, as is the case when triggering free spins organically*.
How much does it cost?
That depends on the game, but you can expect the price to be your current bet multiplied by a lot. For instance, in the slot I played, Madame Destiny Megaways, the feature costs 100x your current bet.
So, if your current bet is $0.20, the feature will cost $20. If it’s $2, it will cost you $200. If you’re betting the game’s maximum $50 bet, it will cost you a whopping $5,000.
Do all slots have the Buy Free Spins option?
No.
- Firstly, this feature is available only in slots that have a free spins bonus round.
- Secondly, the slot usually has high volatility. This means, on average, it can take many spins before you organically trigger the free spins bonus round.
- Thirdly, only certain providers use it in some of their games (e.g., Pragmatic Play**).
- Fourthly, while it is available in Ontario, not all jurisdictions allow players access to this feature.
Buying Free Spins Vs Organically Triggering Free Spins
For my little Buy Free Spins experiment I played Madame Destiny Megaways both in a demo mode* and in real money mode. Mostly it was in demo mode because I have a modest monthly budget, and I didn’t feel like dropping the whole amount on one game just to satisfy my curiosity.
Here’s what happened.
Demo Mode Results Comparison
Buy Free Spins
First time
- $200 to Buy Free Spins ($2.00 x 100)
- Won 5 Spins + 3x Multiplier – Total Win from Free Spins $96.80
- End result: Down $103.20 (I spent $200 on the feature minus the $96.80 win)
Second time
- $200 to Buy Free Spins ($2.00 x 100)
- Won 12 Spins + 5x Multiplier – Total Win from Free Spins $89.00
- End result: Down $111.00 (I spent $200 on the feature minus the $89.00 win)
Organic Free Spins
First time
- $2.00 bet per spin
- Triggered free games round after 32 consecutive spins and landed a total of $33.60 in wins along the way (yup, I tracked and added up the wins).
- Won 8 spins + 3x multiplier – Total Win from free spins $122.20
- End result: Up $91.80 (I spent $64.00 to trigger the spins minus the combined win total of $155.80 – $33.60 in base game wins and $122.20 in free spins wins)
Second time
- $2.00 bet per spin
- Triggered free games round after 27 consecutive spins and landed a total of $15.00 in wins along the way.
- Won 10 spins + 3x multiplier – Total Win from free spins $18.40
- End result: Down $20.60 (I spent $54 to trigger the spins minus the combined win total of $33.40 – $15.00 in base game wins and $18.40 in free spins wins)
Real Money Mode Results
Buy Free Spins
- $20 to Buy Free Spins ($0.20 x 100)
- Won 10 spins + 2x Multiplier – Total Win from free spins $2.52
- End result: Down $17.48 (I spent $20 on the feature minus the $2.52 win – 🫤)
Organic Free Spins
Okay, so in the spirit of writing honest content, I’ll tell you that I never did trigger the free spins organically when playing Madame Destiny Megaways for real money. The simple reason is I didn’t have enough money in my account to do it, and I wouldn’t be making another deposit until the next time I played (one of my personal responsible gaming rules).
Could I have played the game again the next time I deposited to continue my experiment and see how long it would have taken me to trigger the free games round? Sure…but I was all funned-out from that game and needed a little Sweet Alchemy in my life. 😆 Since the reality with gambling is that you never know if you’ll win or how much you’ll win, each time I play, I want to make sure I’m spending on the game I feel like playing. Right now, that’s not Madame Destiny Megaways.
That said, ultimately, what I found when comparing Buy Free Spins and triggering free spins organically, was that I ended up losing a lot more than what I won when I bought the feature. Is this the norm? Is this just my bad luck? 🤷♀️ An excellent question that is not worth the real money risk finding the answer to, in my opinion.
A Note about the Double Chance to Win Feature
You might have noticed in the screenshots I’ve shown that, in addition to the Buy Free Spins option, this game also has a “Double Chance to Win” feature. This is an ante bet where you spend a little more to double your chances of landing a win in the base game and triggering the free spins (e.g., if your current bet is $2.00 it will cost you $2.50 a spin if this feature is activated). When Double Chance to Win is activated, you cannot Buy Free Spins.
I did test out this feature in demo mode as well. I played 50 consecutive spins before stopping. I never triggered the free spins bonus, but I did land lots of base game wins. By the end of it I was up $100.06 (I spent $125 on the spins minus my total combined wins of $225.06). It seems even this feature is a better deal than buying free spins*…🤷♀️
Would I choose to Buy Free Spins again?
Probably not. After experimenting with this feature in both free play mode and for real money, I’ve come to the conclusion that, for me, I’d rather try my luck playing the game naturally and see what happens. Each time I purchased free spins, it ended up costing more in the long run than when I just played the game and triggered the feature naturally.
As I said before, maybe that was just my rotten luck that day or maybe that’s what it’s like all the time. Personally, I’m not interested in finding out one way or the other. My curiosity – at least for the moment – has been satisfied.
What about you? Have you ever used the Buy Free Spins feature? Do you like it? Did you have better luck than I did?
Until next time, good luck and have fun.
Mia 👩💻
*Please remember that no matter the feature you may choose to buy or not buy, all gambling outcomes are 100% random. There is never any guarantee that you will win or that you will win more or less by making different choices. Each bet is a new risk. Also, keep in mind that outcomes you may experience playing a slot in demo mode are not a reflection of what you might win when playing the same game for real money.
**I am not affiliated with Pragmatic Play.
***All links and images in this post are for informational purposes only.
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