I've said it before, but Atlantic City is failing because they had 40 years to take all of that money they were vacuuming up and use it to create a nice place and they didn't. I don't have any problem with legalized gambling, it's just not a strategy for any sort of local economic development, especially if none of the money is actually used for economic development. It's probably the wrong long run strategy, but casinos are designed to trap people inside, to ensure every dollar gets spent inside, and the people who run them aren't interested in any positive spillovers to neighboring businesses. AC could be a perfectly nice beach city with casinos. But it won't be.
