Volumes have been stated on this subject, and the bickering and squabbling about where the "hot" one armed bandits are placed in the casino are still raging – more than sixty yrs after one armed bandits were first added to the gaming floor in gambling dens.
The classic rule is that the better one armed bandits were located just inside the main door of the casino; so that potential players walking by would be able to see jackpot winners … be influenced to come into the casino and play. Our observation is that this is no longer the case.
Nearly all of the major casinos nowadays are grand complexes … you no longer can see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to put the ‘loose’ slot machine games in close proximity to any exits.
An additional traditional rule is that loose one armed bandits are put on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more people could see winning jackpots and be roused to play. Notably 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 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!
These days, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose slot machines.