I don't usually watch the show, as I find it a little bit tedious, but isn't it obvious that the best way of winning the jackpot is choosing drop zones 1 or 4? With 2 or 3, the jackpot counter can move left or right, as well as forward. If, on the other hand, the counter gets itself up against the side wall of 1 or 4, it can only move in the right direction if it gets a push. The contestant tonight had the right idea.
Much like the real-life machines that people like to play on, the Contestants pick a drop-zone where the most counters are, or where they are most tightly packed together, on the edge of either the sliding shelf or the collection point at the bottom.
It's a game of total chance, and you can't guarantee that the counters you drop are going to fall right behind the Bonus counter. Some Contestants are just luckier than others on TP, in my opinion.