Slot Machine positioning
Books have been said on this subject, and the controversy and discourse about where the "hot" slots are installed in a casino are still bubbling – sixty years after the slots were first placed in casinos.
The quintessential rule is that the better slot games were placed just inside the entry of the casino; so that people walking by would see real jackpot winners … be possessed to come unto the gambling floor … play. Our speculation is that this is definitely no longer the case.
Most of the major casinos nowadays are titanic complexes and you can no longer see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to have the ‘loose’ one armed bandits near any entrances or exits.
An additional standard rule is that loose slots are located on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more persons could see winning jackpots and be roused to play. Notably 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 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!
Today, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose slot machines.