
The Rise and Fall of Atlantic City - stickfigure
http://www.city-journal.org/2015/25_4_atlantic-city.html
======
gist
"A long experiment with legalized gambling, launched in 1976, has failed to
reenergize this once-iconic locale"

It didn't fail exactly in the way this sentence seems to want to imply. It did
work (and it significantly built up the surrounding areas). What killed
Atlantic City post gambling 1976, was other states legalizing gambling and
cannibalizing the market that they had to themselves and Las Vegas. Also
gaming on Indian reservations. And a decision early on not to move poor people
out of Atlantic City [1] (similar to what Las Vegas did) making it less
attractive as a vacation spot. There is blight all over and close to the
equivalent of "the strip" for lack of a better way to put it.

[1]
[http://articles.philly.com/2010-07-29/news/24970511_1_casino...](http://articles.philly.com/2010-07-29/news/24970511_1_casino-
atlantic-city-entire-city)

------
JVMsOfGor
Much longer article about same subject
[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/09/07/the-death-
and-l...](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/09/07/the-death-and-life-of-
atlantic-city)

------
whoopdedo
Not mentioned in the article is the effect air conditioning had on where
people go for vacation. Atlantic City was one of the escapes from the hot
summer heat. Now you just turn down the thermostat.

------
barrad0s
Very interesting read for me in special. I happened to be there for the first
time this past Saturday. What an awful place. Truly shady and scary. Dirty, it
seemed like a ghost town.

------
jxramos
+1 for City Journal, love that stuff.

