Books have been said on this issue, and the contention and disagreement about where the "hot" slots are positioned in a casino are still there – more than sixty years after slot machine games were 1st placed in gambling dens.
The quintessential rule is that the most favorable slots were put just inside the entrance of the casino; so that folks passing by would see actual jackpot winners and be titillated to come into the casino and play. Our conviction is that this is definitely no longer the case.
The great majority of the mega casinos nowadays are giant complexes … you can no longer see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to put the ‘loose’ one armed bandits in close proximity to any of the doors.
Yet another classic rule is that loose one armed bandits are positioned on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more folks could see winning jackpots and be roused to play. Importantly however, 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 slot games 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!
In recent times, casinos are constantly changing their perspective about where to place the loose slot machines.