Books have been set forth on this matter, and the bickering and discord about where the "hot" video slots are positioned in a casino are still rampant – more than 60 years after the slot machines were 1st placed in casinos.
The quintessential rule is that the most favorable slot machines were located just inside the main door of the casino; so that individuals walking by would be able to see jackpot winners and be enticed to come into the casino … play. Our view is that this is definitely no longer so.
Just about all of the large casinos presently are enormous complexes and it is not possible to see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to situate the ‘loose’ slot games near to any of the doors.
An additional standard rule is that loose slot machine games are placed on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more folks could see winning jackpots and be encouraged to play. Importantly 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 slot machine games 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 games.