Volumes have been said on this matter, and the conflict and disagreement about where the "hot" slots are positioned in a casino are still ongoing – 60 yrs after slots were first placed in gambling houses.
The quintessential rule is that the more favourable one armed bandits were put just inside the entrance of the casino; so that individuals walking by would see jackpot winners and be enthralled to come into the casino … play. Our point of view is that this is definitely no longer true.
Nearly all of the major casinos these days are enormous complexes … now you can’t see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to place the ‘loose’ slot machines close to any exits.
Yet another traditional rule is that loose slots are put on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more persons could see winning jackpots and be influenced to play. Notably though, we find that this also isn’t 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 the 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 slot games.