Volumes have been written on this issue, and the bickering and ruckus about where the "hot" one armed bandits are installed in a casino are still rampant – 60 yrs after slot games were 1st added to the gaming floor in the casinos.
The quintessential rule is that the best slots were put just inside the main door of the casino; so that persons walking by would be able to see real jackpot winners … be mesmerized enough to come unto the gambling floor and play. Our feeling is that this is definitely no longer the case.
The great majority of the major casinos these days are monstrous complexes … it’s no longer possible to see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to have the ‘loose’ slot machines in close proximity to any doorways.
An additional standard rule is that loose slots are positioned on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more folks could see winning jackpots and be influenced 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 slot machine games 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.