Books have been written on this subject, and the bickering and discussion about where the "hot" slot games are positioned in a casino are still intense – 60 yrs after slot machine games were first placed in gambling dens.
The quintessential rule is that the better one armed bandits were positioned just inside the main entryway of the casino; so that individuals passing by would see actual jackpot winners and be baited to come into the casino and play. Our presumption is that this is definitely no longer true.
Many of the large casinos nowadays are mammoth complexes … you can no longer see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to have the ‘loose’ slot machines close-by any entrances.
An additional classic rule is that loose slots are positioned on the major aisles in the casinos, again so that more folks could see winning jackpots and be motivated to play. Nonetheless, 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 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 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 slot games.