Books have been written on this item, and the bickering and disharmony about where the "hot" one armed bandits are located in the casino are still happening – more than 60 years after the slots were 1st placed in gambling houses.
The classic rule is that the better one armed bandits were positioned just inside the entry of the casino; so that persons passing by would see actual jackpot winners … be attracted to come inside and play. Our verdict is that this is not so anymore.
Just about all of the mega casinos today are behemothic complexes and you can no longer see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to have the ‘loose’ slot games near any of the doors.
Another standard rule is that loose slot games are placed on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more folks could see winning jackpots and be inspired to play. Notably though, we find that this also is no longer a universal rule.
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 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 perspective about where to place the loose slots.