Slot Machine positioning
Books have been written on this issue, and the debates and disagreement about where the "hot" one armed bandits are placed in a casino are still there – over sixty years after slot games were first added to the gaming floor in casinos.
The classic rule is that the better slot games were put just inside the door of the casino; so that casino fanatics passing by would be able to see jackpot winners … be stimulated to come into the casino and play. Our verdict is that this is no longer true.
Almost all of the big name casinos these days are oversized complexes … it is not possible to see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to situate the ‘loose’ one armed bandits near any doorways.
Yet another standard rule is that loose slots are put on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more potential gamblers 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 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!
Today, casinos are constantly changing their perspective about where to place the loose slot games.