Atlantic City Was “America’s Favorite Playground” for More Than Just Gambling
There is a long and well-documented history of Atlantic City being a national hotbed for gambling. But that history doesn't go back a mere half-century, to when New Jersey voters authorized the opening of casinos in the city in 1976.
No, it goes back a full century - as fans of the acclaimed HBO series "Boardwalk Empire" (which aired from 2010-14 and which won 20 Prime Time Emmy Awards) already know.
The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, called the Volstead Act but mainly described as "Prohibition," banned the sale of alcohol from its passage in 1920 to its repeal in 1933.
The law was thwarted to an extent across the country, as local residents would secretly set up "speakeasys" where they could quietly gather to enjoy the product. But these tended to be small-time operations. Cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia flouted the alcohol ban to an extent, but enforcement officials sometimes enforced a shut down of larger establishments.
Atlantic City leaders, by contrast, aggressively ignored the new amendment as the tourism-based city would not have its economy slowed by federal legal action. And along with easy access to alcohol came absolutely any vices that the powerful figures who gravitated toward the city desired - among them illegal drugs, gambling, and prostitution as well.
The lavish Ritz-Carlton hotel opened on the city's iconic Boardwalk in 1921, and former and future Presidents, members of Congress, nationally-renowned entertainers, and notorious mobsters were regular visitors to the property.
A charismatic crime boss ran the show
"Nucky" Johnson, a political boss and racketeer in the city, became the de facto ruler of Atlantic City in this period. At one point, Johnson leased the entire ninth floor of the Ritz-Carlton to serve as his primary base of operations.
The flashy Johnson reflected the ethos of the era, with a red carnation seemingly always adorning his lapel and with a full-length raccoon winter coat and ownership of multiple high-end Cadillac automobiles adding further to the look.
National organized crime bosses took special interest in Atlantic City as the East Coast's unrivaled site for "fast living." A 1929 meeting in the city featured most of the biggest names in that illicit industry, including Al Capone, Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, and Lucky Luciano.
The 1933 repeal of Prohibition, coming as the nation was easing its way out of The Great Depression, hampered Atlantic City's tourism business - even though gambling and prostitution remained rampant. Johnson was convicted of tax evasion in 1939, and the post-World War II economic boom of the late 1940s in large part left Atlantic City's first era of gambling dens behind.
The modern era of Atlantic City as a gambling empire begins
The city's fall from grace was further cemented in August 1964, when national media who came to town for the Democratic National Convention pronounced Atlantic City as a decaying location not at all worth a visit.
Price-gouging by owners of dilapidated Boardwalk hotels, rude employees, and a sense that the local streets were unsafe were among the oft-repeated complaints from many reporters who earlier that summer had enjoyed staying in a resurgent San Francisco during the convention held by the Republican party.
That humbling experience produced the first seeds of discussion on ways to somehow get the city back on its feet. One of those ideas was to try to replicate the success of Las Vegas, where casino gambling was legalized by Nevada lawmakers back in 1931 and where increasingly accessible air travel led to a tourism boom there.
The discussions eventually led to a 1974 statewide ballot question to New Jersey voters about legalizing casinos – an effort which failed badly because the referendum was so vague that many residents feared they might be voting to approve a casino in their own neighborhoods.
Two years later, voters in the state narrowly approved a second ballot question – on that this time clarified that only Atlantic City could play host to any casinos in the state.
Atlantic City casinos – their rise and fall
In 1978, Resorts Casino opened its doors, and many others soon followed. The new business opportunity worked well for national gambling operators as the city's casino revenues grew annually, without exception, for more than 25 years.
But the launch of casinos in 2006 in neighboring Pennsylvania as well as New York proved far more damaging than local elected officials had projected. Casino revenues at one point declined 50% off its peak, and four of the city's 12 casinos closed in 2014 while another was shuttered in 2016.
The economic devastation to the South Jersey economy from the loss of more than 10,000 direct casinos jobs and the secondary ripple effect of high unemployment led state lawmakers to seek new ways to benefit Atlantic City.
Those concerns led directly to a 2011 statewide referendum that was approved to legalize sports betting in Atlantic City - in spite of a 1992 federal law that had handed Nevada a virtual nationwide monopoly on such gambling.
After years of adverse federal court rulings, New Jersey gambling expansion supporters were vindicated in May 2018 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was unconstitutional.
That paved the way, by the end of 2025, for 38 U.S. states to join Nevada in offering betting on professional and college sports – echoing the way that New Jersey’s casinos eventually led to dozens of other states following suit in approving such locations.
The Garden State also authorized the first competitive online casino gaming operations in 2013, and five years later it led the way in allowing gamblers to make sports bets online as well.
This all further underscored the historical national impact that Atlantic City's fortunes - and misfortunes - have had in the way in which gambling has been conducted in the U.S. for the past 100+ years.
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