Books have been set forth on this issue, and the conflict and disagreement about where the "hot" one armed bandits are placed in a casino are still intense – more than 60 yrs after slot machine games were first placed in gambling houses.
The quintessential rule is that the most favorable slot machine games were put just inside the main foyer of the casino; so that potential players walking by would be able to see jackpot winners and be infatuated enough to come unto the gaming floor … play. Our finding is that this is definitely no longer the case.
The great majority of the large casinos presently are super-colossal complexes … you no longer can see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to situate the ‘loose’ one armed bandits near any entrances or exits.
Another classic rule is that loose slot machine games are positioned on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more folks could see winning jackpots and be motivated to play. Nonetheless, 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 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 slot games.