Books have been said on this subject, and the debates and discourse about where the "hot" one armed bandits are placed in a casino are still intense – more than sixty years after one armed bandits were first installed in the casinos.
The quintessential rule is that the most favorable slot machine games were located just inside the entrance of the casino; so that persons walking by would be able to see real jackpot winners and be titillated to come unto the gambling floor … play. Our viewpoint is that this is definitely no longer so.
Almost all of the big name casinos nowadays are super-colossal complexes and it’s no longer possible to see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to have the ‘loose’ slot games in close proximity to any doorways.
An additional standard rule is that loose slot machine games are positioned on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more persons could see winning jackpots and be energized 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 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 philosophy about where to place the loose slot machines.