Now the city is counting on a Canadian company to help turn things around. Nearly 8,000 jobs have vanished with the casino closings and many neighbourhoods are lined with abandoned homes. Just eight casinos are left, and one, the Trump Taj Mahal, is teetering. Gambling revenue has fallen by nearly half in the past seven years. Today, the city is a shadow of that glorious past. This is where the Miss America Pageant began, where stars like Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby came to play and where the board game Monopoly was invented using the city’s street names like Boardwalk and Park Place. “It was a great opportunity to make a lot of money.”įor decades, Atlantic City was an Eastern beacon for fun and games, a resort town that came to be known for its gleaming boardwalk lined with flashy casinos that rivalled those in Las Vegas. Mayer says as he passes time in a union hall. “It was going to be my retirement job,” Mr. Three others have also closed this year amid a stunning downturn in the city’s gambling business. Revel shut its doors in September, a little more than two years after it opened. Mayer spent most of his career at Bally’s, but when he heard about plans for a $2.4-billion (U.S.) resort called Revel, he jumped at the chance to work there and earn $20 an hour. He loved his job and never imagined working anywhere else. Coughlin/Bloombergįor more than 20 years, Rob Mayer manned the front doors of some of Atlantic City’s biggest casino hotels, greeting gamblers, carting bags and getting hefty tips. From left, the Trump Taj Mahal Atlantic City, the Showboat Atlantic City Hotel and Casino, and the Revel Atlantic City.

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