Volumes have been written on this matter, and the contention and arguments about where the "hot" video slots are placed in a casino are still ongoing – more than 60 yrs after slot games were first installed in the casinos.
The standard rule is that the very best slots were put just inside the main entry of the casino; so that persons passing by would be able to see jackpot winners and be enticed to come into the casino … play. Our position is that this is no longer true.
Almost all of the big name casinos these days are jumbo complexes … you can no longer see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to position the ‘loose’ slots close-by any exits.
An additional traditional rule is that loose one armed bandits are positioned on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more persons could see winning jackpots and be influenced to play. Importantly however, 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 the 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!
These days, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose slot machine games.