Volumes have been said on this matter, and the conflict and face-offs about where the "hot" slots are placed in a casino are still intense – over sixty yrs after the slots were 1st placed in gambling dens.
The quintessential rule is that the superior slots were positioned just inside the main entrance of the casino; so that folks walking by would be able to see real jackpot winners and be mesmerized enough to come into the casino and play. Our deduction is that this is definitely no longer true.
Just about all of the mega casinos today are monstrous complexes and it is not possible to see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to place the ‘loose’ slot machine games close-by any doors.
Yet another traditional rule is that loose one armed bandits are put on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more persons could see winning jackpots and be energized to play. 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!
Nowadays, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose slots.