Books have been written on this topic, and the disquiet and discourse about where the "hot" slots are positioned in a casino are still ongoing – over 60 years after slots were 1st placed in casinos.
The quintessential rule is that the very best slots were placed just inside the main entryway of the casino; so that persons walking by would be able to see jackpot winners and be convinced to come into the casino and play. Our determination is that this is definitely no longer the case.
Many of the large casinos today are grand complexes and you no longer can see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to have the ‘loose’ slot machine games in close proximity to any doors.
Another traditional rule is that loose slots are positioned on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more folks could see winning jackpots and be roused to play. Notably however, 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 slot machines 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!
In recent times, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose slot machines.
