Volumes have been said on this item, and the contention and disharmony about where the "hot" slot games are positioned in a casino are still rampant – sixty years after slots were first installed in gambling dens.
The quintessential rule is that the superior slot machines were placed just inside the main entry of the casino; so that folks walking by would see jackpot winners … be impressed enough to come unto the gambling floor and play. Our determination is that this is definitely no longer the case.
Many of the mega casinos today are jumbo complexes … it is not possible to see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to position the ‘loose’ slot machine games near any of the doors.
An additional traditional 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 roused to play. Interestingly though, 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 the slots 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.