THE BIGGEST MOB HIT IN YEARS

The diving horse didn’t really dive. It kind of slid down the chute and into the water.
Casino gambling, a unique form of urban renewal. You be the judge.
As we move into another summer and the numbers keep dropping, look around and what do you see?
We’ve got the outlet center in the middle of town, lots of high end, brand name discount stores
surrounded by lots of fast-food restaurants. We have the Borgata out at the Marina that seems to
be holding its own. But what other gambling hall is really making it? And how many others are close
to bankruptcy?
Part of it is competition. There are three casinos in Philadelphia and its suburbs. The Sugar House
on Delaware Avenue is a glorified pinball arcade, but you can park for free and if all you’re interested
in is a chance to zone out in front of a slot machine, why jump in a car and drive all the way to the
Boardwalk, pay $15 to park and then drive all the way home?
Atlantic City doesn’t offer a viable alternative.
Despite billions of dollars in investment along the Boardwalk and out at the Marina, despite millions
of visitors each year and despite local, county and state political leaders promising to do more and do
it better, Atlantic City is still trying to figure out what it is and how to make it work.
Some things, of course, haven’t changed. Walk along Pacific Avenue at night and you’re going to find
a functioning, open-air bordello.
“Hey, honey, wanna date?”
There are more go-go bars than there used to be and now the casinos themselves can offer topless
revues. Scores, the iconic Manhattan “gentleman’s club,” is said to be coming to town. There’s
progress! High rollers can be wined and dined, win or lose, and top their visit off with a lap dance.
Go home with a smile.
But thirty-five years after the opening of Resorts International there still isn’t a supermarket in the
city or a movie theater on the Boardwalk.
Casino gambling, not an end in itself, but a means to an end?
That might have been the biggest hustle of all.
George Anastasia is a former reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
He covered Atlantic City for the paper from 1976 through 1982.
The Boardwalk Journal | May 2013 | 41