Books have been set forth on this issue, and the disquiet and disharmony about where the "hot" one armed bandits are installed in a casino are still ongoing – more than 60 yrs after slot machine games were first installed in casinos.
The classic rule is that the very best one armed bandits were placed just inside the main foyer of the casino; so that potential gamblers walking by would see actual jackpot winners and be titillated to come unto the gaming floor … play. Our disposition is that this is definitely no longer true.
Almost all of the mega casinos these days are mammoth complexes … now you can’t see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to position the ‘loose’ slots near any doorways.
Yet another traditional rule is that loose slot games are located on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more potential players could see winning jackpots and be influenced to play. Importantly 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 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 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 perspective about where to place the loose slot machines.