10.13
Slot Machine positioning
Books have been said on this subject, and the conflict and ruckus about where the "hot" video slots are installed in the casino are still rampant – more than 60 years after slot games were 1st placed in the casinos.
The traditional rule is that the best slot machine games were located just inside the main door of the casino; so that everyone passing by would see jackpot winners … be challenged to come inside … play. Our sneaking suspicion is that this is definitely no longer so.
Just about all of the major casinos today are titanic complexes and you can no longer see inside from the sidewalk, so there’s no longer a reason to position the ‘loose’ slot machines close-by any doorways.
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 encouraged 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 the slot machines 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!
These days, casinos are constantly changing their perspective about where to place the loose slot games.