Online gaming software providers continuously introduce innovations in their online slot games. A recent innovation introduced by Cryptologic was the Bonus Bet. This innovation was introduced in the branded online slots Batman and Wonder Woman. The Bonus Bet works on the principle that the players who wager more stand to get greater benefits.

In online slot games the total number of coins wagered per spin is calculated as the product of the number of coins per payline and the number of paylines. In Batman the number of coins per payline is one and the number of paylines is 50. Therefore the maximum number of coins wagered per spin would be 50. However by activating the Bonus Bet the number of coins wagered increases by 10 and becomes 60. Clicking the Bonus Bet button automatically enables all paylines and adds the additional 10 coins. The amount wagered is obtained the usual way by multiplying the number of coins with the coin denomination. The player can wager with the Bonus Bet button activated with his desired coin denomination. He need not choose the maximum coin denomination.

In the online slot game Batman the extra 10 coins of the Bonus Bet can cost the player from $0.10 at the lowest coin denomination to $200 at the highest coin denomination. A player will pay this extra amount if and only if there is an additional benefit offered to him. In Batman the bonus game on the second screen, called The Descent into Madness feature, is only accessible to players who have wagered the Bonus Bet. This is a reasonable advantage because not only is this feature very exciting but it is lucrative as well. In this feature the player gets two chances to trap the Joker and if he is successful he can win to 100 times the triggering bet. Before activating the Bonus Bet players must keep in mind two factors. Activating the Bonus Bet does not guarantee that The Descent into Madness feature will be triggered. The additional condition required has also to be met. Three or more scatter symbols have to appear left to right. If this does not happen then the feature will not be triggered even if the Bonus Bet has been activated. The second point to be remembered is that even if the feature is activated the player is not guaranteed a payout of 100 times the triggering bet. Hence the player has to judge the pros and cons and take a considered call.

There is another advantage offered to players who have activated the Bonus Bet. An additional wild Batman symbol is added to reels 2, 3 and 4 at random. This increases the chance of obtaining a winning combination and players can expect greater payouts. However again there is no guarantee for this and players have to take a considered call.

There is one benefit that a player would automatically expect to get from an increased total bet per spin that has been specifically excluded from the ambit of the Bonus Bet. Scatter payouts are multiplied by the total bet per spin. However when the Bonus Bet is activated the scatter payouts will not be multiplied by the total bet per spin but 50 times the line bet. This simply means that the additional 10 coins of the bonus bet will be ignored for the purposes of calculating scatter payouts.

In due course players can expect other online gaming software providers to introduce their own versions of the Bonus Bet.