Volumes have been said on this topic, and the bickering and disagreement about where the "hot" one armed bandits are placed in a casino are still taking place – more than sixty yrs after one armed bandits were 1st placed in gambling houses.
The quintessential rule is that the very best slot machines were positioned just inside the main entrance of the casino; so that everyone passing by would see jackpot winners and be tempted to come inside … play. Our frame of mind is that this is no longer the case.
Most of the major casinos today are behemothic complexes … you no longer can see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to have the ‘loose’ slot machine games near to any entrances or exits.
An additional standard rule is that loose one armed bandits are put on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more folks could see winning jackpots and be energized to play. Nonetheless, we find that this also is not 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 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 slots.