Books have been written on this issue, and the disquiet and interchanges about where the "hot" slot games are positioned in a casino are still there – more than 60 years after the slot machines were first placed in the casinos.
The classic rule is that the superior one armed bandits were positioned just inside the main doorway of the casino; so that fun seekers going by would see actual jackpot winners and be smitten to come unto the gambling floor … play. Our view is that this is definitely no longer so.
Most of the big name casinos nowadays are enormous complexes … now you can’t see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to put the ‘loose’ slot machine games near any of the doors.
Another standard rule is that loose slots are placed on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more folks could see winning jackpots and be influenced to play. Interestingly though, we find that this also is no longer a universal rule.
What casinos found over the years is that people walking down the busy aisles were frequently on the way to somewhere else. If they played slots at all, they would simply put in their loose change because they happened to be walking by. Win or lose, they would very often not stop to keep playing. And the last thing a casino wants is for someone to win a jackpot by playing only a few coins and then not stay to put it all back in!
These days, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose slot machine games.