Volumes have been written on this item, and the contention and ruckus about where the "hot" one armed bandits are located in a casino are still ongoing – over 60 years after slot machine games were first placed in the casinos.
The traditional rule is that the better slots were positioned just inside the entry of the casino; so that potential gamblers walking by would see actual jackpot winners and be baited to come into the casino … play. Our thought is that this is no longer true.
Almost all of the big name casinos today are super-colossal complexes … now you can’t see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to put the ‘loose’ slot machines close-by any doorways.
Yet another classic rule is that loose slot machines are placed on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more persons could see winning jackpots and be encouraged to play. Notably however, we find that this also is not a universal rule any more.
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 the slot machines 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 very 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!
Today, casinos are constantly changing their perspective about where to place the loose slots.