12.13
Slot Machine Location
Volumes have been written on this subject, and the contention and discourse about where the "hot" video slots are installed in a casino are still raging – more than sixty years after the slot machines were 1st added to the gaming floor in casinos.
The classic rule is that the most favorable slot games were positioned just inside the main foyer of the casino; so that folks passing by would see real jackpot winners … be smitten to come unto the gaming floor … play. Our persuasion is that this is not so anymore.
Nearly all of the big name casinos today are jumbo complexes and now you can’t see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to situate the ‘loose’ slot machine games near any entrances or exits.
An additional traditional rule is that loose one armed bandits are placed on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more people could see winning jackpots and be influenced to play. Notably however, 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 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!
Today, casinos are constantly changing their philosophy about where to place the loose slot machines.