Books have been written on this topic, and the conflict and ruckus about where the "hot" slot machines are positioned in a casino are still bubbling – sixty years after slots were 1st added to the gaming floor in gambling houses.
The traditional rule is that the very best one armed bandits were located just inside the main door of the casino; so that potential gamblers walking by would be able to see real jackpot winners and be attracted to come into the casino and play. Our sneaking suspicion is that this is not so anymore.
Just about all of the major casinos nowadays are enormous complexes … you can no longer see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to place the ‘loose’ slot machines near any doors.
An additional traditional rule is that loose slot machine games are put on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more folks could see winning jackpots and be motivated to play. Interestingly though, 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 one armed bandits 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 machine games.
