Books have been set forth on this issue, and the bickering and feuds about where the "hot" slot games are positioned in a casino are still raging – more than sixty yrs after the slots were first installed in the casinos.
The quintessential rule is that the more favourable one armed bandits were installed just inside the main entrance of the casino; so that people walking by would see jackpot winners and be stimulated to come into the casino and play. Our verdict is that this is definitely no longer so.
The great majority of the mega casinos these days are huge complexes and it’s no longer possible to see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to have the ‘loose’ slots close to any exits.
Yet another classic rule is that loose slots are located on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more potential players 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 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!
These days, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose slots.