Books have been set forth on this item, and the contention and disharmony about where the "hot" slots are placed in the casino are still raging – 60 years after slot machines were first placed in casinos.
The standard rule is that the more favourable one armed bandits were installed just inside the entrance of the casino; so that persons walking by would see jackpot winners … be challenged to come unto the gaming floor … play. Our reasoning is that this is not so anymore.
Just about all of the big name casinos these days are super-colossal complexes … now you can’t see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to put the ‘loose’ slots near to any doorways.
An additional standard rule is that loose slot machines are placed on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more potential gamblers could see winning jackpots and be roused to play. Nonetheless, 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 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 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!
Today, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose slots.