Books have been written on this topic, and the disquiet and ruckus about where the "hot" slot machines are positioned in a casino are still passionate – more than sixty yrs after the slots were first added to the gaming floor in the casinos.
The classic rule is that the most favorable slot machine games were placed just inside the door of the casino; so that persons passing by would be able to see actual jackpot winners and be smitten to come into the casino … play. Our sentiment is that this is definitely no longer the case.
Almost all of the mega casinos nowadays are behemothic complexes … you can no longer see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to place the ‘loose’ slot machines close-by any entrances.
Yet another standard rule is that loose slot games are installed on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more folks could see winning jackpots and be influenced to play. Nonetheless, we find that this also is no longer a universal rule.
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 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!
Nowadays, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose slot machines.