Books have been said on this topic, and the bickering and discourse about where the "hot" one armed bandits are located in a casino are still bubbling – more than 60 yrs after slot games were 1st placed in gambling houses.
The quintessential rule is that the best one armed bandits were placed just inside the entry of the casino; so that fun seekers walking by would be able to see actual jackpot winners … be attracted to come into the casino … play. Our thought is that this is no longer the case.
Nearly all of the big name casinos today are enormous complexes and you no longer can see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to situate the ‘loose’ slot machine games close to any exits.
Another traditional rule is that loose slot machine games are put on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more potential gamblers could see winning jackpots and be inspired to play. Importantly 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 slot 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!
Nowadays, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose slot machine games.