Slot Machine positioning
Books have been written on this subject, and the disquiet and face-offs about where the "hot" slot machine games are located in the casino are still passionate – more than 60 years after slot games were first placed in gambling houses.
The classic rule is that the superior one armed bandits were positioned just inside the main door of the casino; so that potential gamblers going by would be able to see actual jackpot winners … be mesmerized enough to come unto the gambling floor … play. Our sneaking suspicion is that this is definitely no longer so.
The majority of the big name casinos today are gigantic complexes and it is not possible to see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to have the ‘loose’ slots near to any entrances or exits.
Yet another traditional rule is that loose slot machine games are put on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more potential players could see winning jackpots and be galvanized 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 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 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 one armed bandits.