04.29
Slot Machine Location
Volumes have been stated on this item, and the debates and squabbling about where the "hot" slot machine games are located in a casino are still passionate – sixty years after slot machine games were first installed in gambling houses.
The classic rule is that the superior slots were placed just inside the main entryway of the casino; so that casino fanatics walking by would be able to see jackpot winners … be influenced to come into the casino … play. Our theorem is that this is not so anymore.
Nearly all of the major casinos these days are enormous complexes … now you can’t see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to put the ‘loose’ slot machines in close proximity to any doors.
Yet another traditional rule is that loose slot games are placed on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more folks could see winning jackpots and be galvanized to play. Nonetheless, 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 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 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 philosophy about where to place the loose slots.