Books have been written on this item, and the debates and disagreement about where the "hot" slot games are placed in the casino are still passionate – over sixty years after the slot machines were first added to the gaming floor in the casinos.
The traditional rule is that the superior slot games were placed just inside the main doorway of the casino; so that potential players walking by would see jackpot winners and be captivated to come into the casino … play. Our reckoning is that this is definitely no longer the case.
Almost all of the major casinos today are huge complexes … you can no longer see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to have the ‘loose’ slot games near any entrances.
An additional classic rule is that loose slot games are positioned on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more potential gamblers could see winning jackpots and be influenced to play. Notably 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 one armed bandits 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!
Nowadays, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose slots.