Volumes have been written on this topic, and the bickering and discourse about where the "hot" slot machines are located in a casino are still there – over 60 years after slot machine games were first placed in casinos.
The quintessential rule is that the superior one armed bandits were positioned just inside the main entryway of the casino; so that persons going by would see actual jackpot winners and be intrigued enough to come into the casino … play. Our verdict is that this is not so anymore.
The majority of the large casinos nowadays are super-colossal complexes … you can no longer see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to position the ‘loose’ slot machine games in close proximity to any of the doors.
Yet another traditional rule is that loose slot games are placed on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more people could see winning jackpots and be galvanized to play. Nonetheless, we find that this also isn’t 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 machine 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!
In recent times, casinos are constantly changing their perspective about where to place the loose one armed bandits.