Books have been said on this matter, and the debates and squabbling about where the "hot" video slots are positioned in a casino are still there – over sixty yrs after the slots were 1st added to the gaming floor in gambling houses.
The traditional rule is that the most favorable one armed bandits were installed just inside the main doorway of the casino; so that people walking by would see actual jackpot winners and be infatuated enough to come into the casino … play. Our deduction is that this is definitely no longer so.
Most of the mega casinos these days are huge complexes … you no longer can see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to have the ‘loose’ one armed bandits close-by any entrances or exits.
Yet another classic rule is that loose slot machine games are located on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more people could see winning jackpots and be inspired 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 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!
These days, casinos are constantly changing their perspective about where to place the loose slot machines.