Volumes have been said on this item, and the disquiet and disagreement about where the "hot" slot games are installed in the casino are still bubbling – more than sixty years after slot machines were first added to the gaming floor in the casinos.
The classic rule is that the more favourable slot machines were placed just inside the main entrance of the casino; so that potential gamblers walking by would see jackpot winners … be challenged to come into the casino and play. Our belief is that this is definitely no longer the case.
The great majority of the large casinos these days are enormous complexes … it’s no longer possible to see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to place the ‘loose’ one armed bandits near to any entrances or exits.
Another classic rule is that loose slot machine games are installed on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more potential players could see winning jackpots and be motivated 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!
Nowadays, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose one armed bandits.
