Volumes have been written on this item, and the controversy and feuds about where the "hot" slot machines are located in a casino are still intense – 60 years after the slot machines were first placed in casinos.
The quintessential rule is that the superior one armed bandits were positioned just inside the door of the casino; so that persons passing by would be able to see actual jackpot winners and be smitten to come into the casino … play. Our determination is that this is definitely no longer true.
Almost all of the mega casinos nowadays are behemothic complexes … you can no longer see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to place the ‘loose’ one armed bandits near to any doors.
An additional traditional rule is that loose slot games are placed on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more people could see winning jackpots and be roused 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 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 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!
These days, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose one armed bandits.