Casino Cash Goes To Lure Gamblers,
Not Help Atlantic City Neighborhoods
Despite promises made nearly 4 decades ago that Casinos would help clean up Atlantic City and create jobs and prosperity there, casino gambling has done little to lift Atlantic City’s depressed neighborhoods. Opportunities for community redevelopment were squandered. Scars and eyesores remain pockmarks in the landscape. Clean, safe environments remain an out-of-reach dream for many. Most insulting, the very government agency created to help city residents has since changed its focus — to helping casinos attract more gamblers and visitors.
Why do deep-seated social problems still plague the city despite the money poured into casinos? Check out this story at USA Today…
Millions spent on casinos didn’t help Atlantic City
Deep-seated social problems still plague the city despite the money poured into casinos.
Jean Mikle
Asbury Park (N.J.) Press | USA Today
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — It was what everyone was talking about in the fall of 1976, in and around Atlantic City, N.J.: A statewide referendum that would allow legalized gambling in the so-called “Queen of Resorts,” a once-thriving coastal community that had fallen on hard times.
Gambling, many thought, would be a boon to the struggling city with nearly 20% unemployment, restoring it to its early 20th-century glory. Eve Davis, 51, was born and raised in Atlantic City, and remembers how strongly her parents supported the referendum.
“My family believed it was what was going to save the city,” said Davis, a cocktail server at the Showboat casino who now lives in nearby Ventnor, N.J. “It was going to bring great jobs.”
Read the full article online here.
Contact: John Sowinski
Phone: 407-608-5930
Email: info@nocasinos.org