Volumes have been said on this topic, and the bickering and arguments about where the "hot" one armed bandits are located in the casino are still bubbling – 60 years after slot games were first installed in the casinos.
The standard rule is that the best slot machine games were placed just inside the door of the casino; so that persons going by would be able to see real jackpot winners … be mesmerized enough to come inside and play. Our conviction is that this is definitely no longer so.
Almost all of the major casinos nowadays are behemothic complexes … it is not possible to see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to place the ‘loose’ slots in close proximity to any entrances.
Yet another standard rule is that loose slot games are put on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more potential players could see winning jackpots and be roused 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 slots 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 perspective about where to place the loose slot machines.