Books have been said on this issue, and the disquiet and arguments about where the "hot" one armed bandits are located in a casino are still taking place – sixty years after slot machines were first placed in gambling houses.
The traditional rule is that the more favourable slot machine games were located just inside the main door of the casino; so that everyone passing by would see actual jackpot winners … be tempted to come unto the gambling floor and play. Our finding is that this is definitely no longer true.
Almost all of the big name casinos nowadays are mammoth complexes … now you can’t see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to place the ‘loose’ one armed bandits in close proximity to any entrances or exits.
Yet another traditional rule is that loose one armed bandits are installed on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more potential gamblers could see winning jackpots and be galvanized 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 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 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!
Today, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose slot games.
