There are still ugly parts of town, unemployment is more than twice the state average and critics blame casinos for compulsive gambling and bankruptcies. More than 25 states have some form of casino gambling.īut Atlantic City is no Monte Carlo. Twenty-five years to the month after the first casino opened its doors, Atlantic City is booming and New Jersey is being hailed for making gambling more respectable. When New Jersey voters approved gambling in hopes of saving a dying Atlantic City, it was a roll of the dice: They were betting on a mob-tainted business that had never been used to revitalize a city.
