Volumes have been written on this matter, and the debates and arguments about where the "hot" one armed bandits are placed in the casino are still rampant – more than sixty years after the slot machines were first installed in the casinos.
The quintessential rule is that the superior slots were put just inside the main door of the casino; so that persons walking by would be able to see real jackpot winners and be inspired to come inside … play. Our opinion is that this is definitely no longer so.
Many of the big name casinos presently are giant complexes … you no longer can see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to position the ‘loose’ one armed bandits close to any doors.
An additional classic rule is that loose slot machine games are put on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more potential gamblers could see winning jackpots and be galvanized to play. Importantly though, 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 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 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.