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Atlantic City, New Jersey was, up until the 1940s, a hugely popular vacation resort and tourist destination for many Americans that lived within easy travelling distance. Every summer, families would descend upon the area and the tourist industry thrived. The end of the Second World War however saw great changes to the aviation industry.

This was a new era of peace times that heralded in cheaper air fares and opened up more exotic and tropical vacation destinations such as the Caribbean Islands and Florida to many ordinary families. The result was a rapid decline in the tourist industry for Atlantic City. The whole area saw a downturn in visitors which caused many local businesses to close down and create a vacuum in employment and services. This, in turn resulted in a downward spiral in the city which lasted until the 1970s. Finally, disheartened city officials came up with a plan that would breathe new life into the city and would hopefully see a return of the tourists and with them the glory days.

Gambling became legalised in the state of New Jersey and this, it was believed would pave the way for grand plans to be laid for the building of a casino resort comparable to Las Vegas here on the east coast. The hope was for a repeat of the economic success that several decades earlier placed Las Vegas firmly on the map.

The project was dubbed the “Atlantic City Gamble” which made the organisers’ intentions crystal clear and left no doubt in the minds of the inhabitants of the area as to the end result. Despite this, there was plenty of opposition to the proposal. A brace of gambling concerns were voiced by residents and restrictions were put firmly in place which caused the plan’s early formation to be stifled. So despite the much hoped for no holds barred gambling emporium of the east, Atlantic City instead had legislators and local government officials scratching their heads as to why their well laid plans had not come to fruition as they had expected.

Everything about the plan was geared up for a successful creation of a “Sin City” of the East, with the perfect location between the huge cities of New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. for attracting huge numbers of visitors. Part of the problem of this close proximity to these metropolises was that many of the patrons of the new casinos were close enough to merely visit on day trips. This was no good for the local hotel and restaurant businesses, which were geared up for longer term guests.

For several years, the outlook remained bleak for the grand plan and Atlantic City’s new development was looking more like a huge failure for the city. While the casinos were making money, there was no other injection of trade for the rest of the city which was needed to improve the quality of life for the inhabitants.

It wasn’t until the late 1980s that the fortunes of the city finally began to turn.

Attracting flocks of people to the area were the newer slot clubs that had become hugely popular by this time with the great leaps made in technology and the introduction of hi-tech slots machines. These were sited in some of the newer upscale hotel resorts which attracted people away from the heat and pace of the surrounding cities. This also attracted a younger clientele, where previously Atlantic City had become associated with a more mature crowd. In response the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa was opened after a $1.1 billion development project. This attracted a younger generation in huge numbers to its air conditioned nightclubs, bars and gourmet restaurants. Many attribute the rebirth of the city to these successful attempts to attract youth and vitality to the area.

In the early part of the 21st century a second phase of exciting new developments got underway, helping Atlantic City to increase their tax base from a paltry 1976 figure of $316 million to a more respectable 2004 figure of over $6.7 billion. New investments and further expansions are seeing billions of dollars being pumped into the city as the prosperity that Atlantic City once enjoyed in the early part of the 20th century has come full circle to return it to its former glory as a city of wealth and prosperity.

While the many urban problems that are associated with crime and poverty have not been completely eradicated, the city has truly been transformed from its most desperate times during the 1960s and 1970s to a prosperous and regenerated city of the 21st century. Finally, the dream of a Las Vegas of the east has been realised in Atlantic City.