Volumes have been set forth on this topic, and the conflict and squabbling about where the "hot" slot machine games are located in the casino are still rampant – more than sixty years after slot games were 1st placed in the casinos.
The standard rule is that the better one armed bandits were placed just inside the main foyer of the casino; so that people going by would see actual jackpot winners … be possessed to come inside and play. Our inference is that this is definitely no longer the case.
Just about all of the major casinos nowadays are behemothic complexes … you no longer can see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to place the ‘loose’ slot games close to any of the doors.
An additional classic rule is that loose one armed bandits are placed on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more potential gamblers could see winning jackpots and be influenced to play. Importantly though, 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 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!
These days, casinos are constantly changing their perspective about where to place the loose slots.