Books have been said on this item, and the bickering and ruckus about where the "hot" slots are located in a casino are still rampant – sixty years after slot machines were first placed in casinos.
The classic rule is that the better slots were positioned just inside the door of the casino; so that persons passing by would see jackpot winners and be stimulated to come inside … play. Our estimation is that this is no longer the case.
Just about all of the large casinos these days are huge complexes and you can no longer see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to position the ‘loose’ one armed bandits in close proximity to any of the doors.
Yet another traditional rule is that loose slot machines are located on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more fun seekers could see winning jackpots and be galvanized to play. Notably 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 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 perspective about where to place the loose slot machines.