Books have been said on this issue, and the bickering and face-offs about where the "hot" slots are located in the casino are still there – 60 yrs after slot machine games were 1st installed in casinos.
The quintessential rule is that the superior one armed bandits were put just inside the entry of the casino; so that people walking by would be able to see jackpot winners … be stirred to come unto the gambling floor … play. Our conviction is that this is definitely no longer true.
Just about all of the big name casinos today are enormous complexes … you can no longer see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to put the ‘loose’ slot machines near to any doors.
An additional classic rule is that loose slot machine games are located on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more folks could see winning jackpots and be energized to play. 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 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 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!
These days, casinos are constantly changing their perspective about where to place the loose slots.