Volumes have been said on this topic, and the disquiet and face-offs about where the "hot" slot machine games are installed in the casino are still bubbling – more than 60 yrs after slots were 1st placed in the casinos.
The standard rule is that the superior one armed bandits were placed just inside the main entrance of the casino; so that potential gamblers passing by would be able to see real jackpot winners … be stirred to come unto the gaming floor and play. Our interpretation is that this is not so anymore.
The majority of the major casinos today are super-colossal complexes … you can no longer see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to have the ‘loose’ slot machine games near any doors.
Another traditional rule is that loose slot machine games are placed on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more persons could see winning jackpots and be influenced to play. Interestingly though, 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 one armed bandits 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!
Nowadays, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose slots.
