Books have been set forth on this item, and the disquiet and face-offs about where the "hot" slot machine games are located in a casino are still bubbling – over 60 yrs after the slot machines were 1st added to the gaming floor in gambling houses.
The traditional rule is that the superior one armed bandits were positioned just inside the main door of the casino; so that potential gamblers walking by would see jackpot winners and be mesmerized enough to come into the casino … play. Our sneaking suspicion is that this is not so anymore.
Most of the big name casinos nowadays are jumbo complexes and now you can’t see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to have the ‘loose’ one armed bandits near any doorways.
Another classic rule is that loose slot machine games are located on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more fun seekers could see winning jackpots and be encouraged 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 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!
Nowadays, casinos are constantly changing their perspective about where to place the loose one armed bandits.