THE BIGGEST MOB HIT IN YEARS

They were lined up down the Boardwalk for blocks.
And once they got inside, there still was no guarantee that there’d be a place at one of the tables or
slot machines.
Sometimes they’d have to wait for an hour or more.
But still they came.
Every day.
More and more people.
This was bigger than anyone expected.
Thirty-five years ago this month, Resorts International opened the first legal casino in Atlantic City.
The gambling palace was in the renovated Chalfonte-Haddon Hall hotel complex on the Boardwalk
at North Carolina Avenue. This was the start of the grand experiment – a “unique form of urban
renewal” said the proponents of the plan that had been approved in a state-wide voter referendum in
November 1976.
“Casino gaming,” they said (they never called it “gambling”) was NOT an end in itself, but a means to
an end. This was the economic catalyst that was going to rebuild
Atlantic City.
What the hell happened?
How did a city(and a state)that seemed to have everything going for it more than three decades ago
screw it all up? How did Atlantic City, the former Queen of Resorts, a city small enough to be easily
managed and lucky enough to have a Boardwalk, beach and ocean just sitting there, fail to cash in?
How did the city roll a snake eyes when it appeared to be a lock to win the biggest gamble of its life?
You can go many different places to look for the answers and to fix blame. Fixing blame, in fact, is part
of the city’s DNA. When a problem arises, those in power don’t try to solve it, but bend themselves
into contortions avoiding responsibility while pointing a finger at someone else. It’s the state. It’s the
federal government. It’s the Department of Environmental Protection. It’s Wall Street. It’s the casino
industry. The list goes on and on and on.
So you can start there when trying to assess how things got so screwed up.
And you can add greed and incompetence and, most recently, a recession/depression.
For my money, it’s all of that and more. It’s a personality defect that has plagued Atlantic City forever.
It’s rooted in a history that goes back to the turn of the last century. It’s built around the concept that
the suckers are only going to be here for twelve weeks a year so let’s get all we can while they’re here.
The Boardwalk Journal | May 2013 | 35