Volumes have been written on this issue, and the debates and disagreement about where the "hot" video slots are located in a casino are still there – over 60 years after slot games were 1st added to the gaming floor in gambling houses.
The traditional rule is that the best slot machines were installed just inside the entrance of the casino; so that fun seekers passing by would see jackpot winners … be mesmerized enough to come into the casino … play. Our belief is that this is no longer true.
Most of the large casinos nowadays are super-colossal complexes … it’s no longer possible to see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to place the ‘loose’ slot machine games close-by any of the doors.
Another classic rule is that loose one armed bandits are located on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more potential gamblers could see winning jackpots and be energized to play. Interestingly 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 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 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!
Today, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose one armed bandits.