Atlantic City, New Jersey

• 1. Introduction

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  Atlantic City sits on Absecon Island, a narrow strip of South Jersey coastline where the Atlantic Ocean meets marshland, and for well over a century it has drawn people looking for something they could not find at home. It inspired the street names on the U.S. version of Monopoly. It was once the home of Miss America. It gave rise to one of the most powerful criminal bosses of the Prohibition era, a man whose income reached as much as $500,000 a year from kickbacks on illegal liquor, gambling, and prostitution. And it opened the first legal casino on the eastern seaboard on the 26th of May, 1978. How did a remote barrier island become "The World's Playground," and what happened when that playground began to age? The answers run through railroad barons and racketeers, architects who poured reinforced concrete into Spanish domes, and a board game that accidentally misspelled one of its own streets.

• 2. The Island Takes Shape

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  Jeremiah Leeds built a year-round home on what would become Atlantic City in 1783, making him the region's earliest known European settler. The area had long served as a summer home for the Lenape people before that. It took another seven decades before developers looked at this remote stretch of marshland and island and saw something more.

  In 1853, Atlantic City was formally named, and that same year its first commercial hotel, the Belloe House, opened at the corner of Massachusetts and Atlantic Avenues. What made the city viable was a direct rail link to Philadelphia, then the second-most populous city in the United States. The Camden and Atlantic Railroad began service in 1854, the same year the city was incorporated, and it pulled Philadelphia's residents toward the shore in extraordinary numbers. By 1874, nearly half a million passengers a year were arriving by rail.

  Jonathan Pitney, whom the book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City calls the city's "Godfather" and the "Father of Atlantic City," had pushed for that railroad from the start. He had envisioned a health resort; what he helped create was something far louder. The first public lodging that greeted those early rail passengers was the United States Hotel, owned by the railroad itself. It was a four-story structure built to house 2,000 guests, opened before construction was even finished. When it was complete, it was not only Atlantic City's first hotel but also the largest hotel in the nation, with more than 600 rooms spread across roughly 14 acres.

  The boardwalk followed in 1870, originally a temporary structure built to keep sand out of hotel lobbies. It was meant to be dismantled each year at the end of peak season. Its effectiveness changed those plans quickly, and subsequent expansions extended it until, before the 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane reshaped the coastline, it ran about 7 miles from Atlantic City all the way to Longport.

• 3. Grand Hotels and Salt Water Taffy

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  In 1883, David Bradley's candy shop near the beach was flooded by ocean water after a storm, soaking his taffy. He sold the waterlogged candy to a young girl as "salt water taffy," and his mother, overhearing the sale from the back of the store, loved the name. Whether or not the story is entirely true, the candy became Atlantic City's most enduring culinary export.

  The early 20th century brought a construction boom that replaced modest boarding houses with grand hotels. Josiah White III purchased land near Ohio Avenue and the boardwalk in 1902, built a Queen Anne-style hotel he called the Marlborough House, and then five years later hired the architectural firm Price and McLanahan to build something even grander on adjacent land. The firm used reinforced concrete, a material first invented by Jean-Louis Lambot in 1848 and patented by Joseph Monier in 1867. The result was the Blenheim Hotel, topped with a signature dome and chimneys and decorated in Spanish and Moorish themes. White merged it with his original building into the Marlborough-Blenheim, and it became one of the city's defining landmarks.

  His half-brother Daniel White owned the Traymore Hotel, which had started life as a small boarding house in 1879 before growing through a series of uncoordinated expansions. By 1914, Daniel White also hired Price and McLanahan to replace the entire wooden structure. The firm delivered a 16-story, tan brick and gold-capped building with ocean-facing wings jutting out from the main body along Pacific Avenue. It was demolished in 1972.

  By 1930, The Claridge Hotel had risen to 24 stories and 370 feet, built by a partnership that included Philadelphia contractor John McShain. Known as the "Skyscraper by the Sea," the 480-room Claridge was the last large hotel Atlantic City would build before the casino era. Historians often point to the 1920s as the city's golden age, when tourism peaked and the boardwalk hummed with activity.

• 4. Nucky, Capone, and the Roaring City

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  Prohibition arrived nationally in 1919 and lasted until 1933, but in Atlantic City it was something closer to a suggestion. Racketeer and political boss Enoch L. "Nucky" Johnson ran the city during those years, and his annual income reached as much as $500,000 from kickbacks on illegal liquor, gambling, and prostitution, as well as from construction projects. Alcohol smuggled into the city had the implicit approval of local officials, and it flowed freely at restaurants and other establishments.

  In May 1929, Johnson hosted a conference for organized crime figures from across the country that gave rise to a National Crime Syndicate. The meeting was called by Charles "Lucky" Luciano, a lieutenant in the Masseria family, and Johnny Torrio, the former boss of the Chicago South Side Gang. Meyer Lansky and Benjamin Siegel of the Bugs and Meyer Mob provided security. Al Capone attended and was photographed walking along the boardwalk with Johnson.

  Mayor Edward L. Bader ran the city's official side during this same period. Despite opposition, he pushed Atlantic City to purchase the land that became its municipal airport and high school football stadium, both of which were later named Bader Field. In November 1923, he initiated a public referendum that approved construction of a Convention Center, and the city passed an ordinance approving a bond issue of $1.5 million for the purchase of land, finalized on the 30th of September, 1924. Bader was also a driving force behind creating the Miss America competition.

  On the city's racially segregated Northside, a different kind of nightlife took shape along Kentucky Avenue. Four major clubs, including Club Harlem, the Paradise Club, Grace's Little Belmont, and Wonder Gardens, drew both Black and white patrons throughout the 1930s into the 1960s. Jazz and R&B music continued into the early morning hours during the summer tourist season, and soul food restaurants like Wash's Restaurant, Jerry's, and Sap's lined the block.

• 5. Decline and the Gamble on Casinos

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  After World War II, Atlantic City's decline came from several directions at once. The automobile let visitors travel on their own schedules rather than staying for weeks at a time. Suburban living brought home air conditioning and private swimming pools, reducing the appeal of a beach resort. And cheap jet travel made year-round destinations like Miami Beach and the Bahamas accessible to a middle-class traveler who once would have come to the Jersey shore instead.

  The 1964 Democratic National Convention, which nominated Lyndon Johnson for president and Hubert Humphrey for vice president, was held in Atlantic City. Rather than lifting the city's profile, the press coverage cast a harsh light on its long decline. By the late 1960s, once-grand hotels were shuttered, converted to cheap apartments, or turned into nursing facilities. The neighborhood known as the Inlet became particularly impoverished.

  In 1974, New Jersey voters rejected a statewide referendum on casino gambling by a 60-40 margin. Two years later, a new referendum restricted gambling specifically to Atlantic City and passed 56-44. The owners of the Chalfonte-Haddon Hall Hotel began converting it almost immediately. Resorts International opened on the 26th of May, 1978, with a ribbon-cutting by Governor Brendan Byrne, becoming the first legal casino in the eastern United States.

  Other casinos followed along the boardwalk and later in the marina district. Mike Tyson fought most of his major bouts in Atlantic City during the 1980s, which helped draw national attention. Many boxing matches took place at Donald Trump's Trump Plaza, promoted by Bob Arum or Don King, and fights included Tyson versus Holmes, Tyson versus Michael Spinks, and Roberto Duran versus Iran Barkley. By the end of the decade, Atlantic City was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States.

• 6. Casinos, Closures, and Contested Futures

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  Casino revenue in Atlantic City peaked at $5.2 billion in 2006. By 2013 it had fallen to $2.9 billion, a drop that cut directly into the state's 8% tax on those earnings, money used to fund programs for senior citizens and the disabled. Four casinos closed in 2014 alone: the Atlantic Club on the 13th of January, the Showboat on the 31st of August, the Revel on the 2nd of September, and Trump Plaza on the 16th of September.

  The Revel Casino's story captured the arc of Atlantic City's casino era in concentrated form. Morgan Stanley owned 90% of Revel Entertainment Group and pulled its funding in April 2010. Governor Chris Christie offered $261 million in state tax credits to help the casino once it opened. Revel had a soft opening in April 2012, but filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2013 after the resort's value was written down from $2.4 billion to $450 million. It closed in September 2014 and was eventually sold for $200 million in 2017, reopening in 2018 as Ocean Casino Resort.

  On the 29th of October, 2012, Superstorm Sandy struck Atlantic City, producing an all-time record low barometric pressure reading of 943 mb for the state of New Jersey. The northern residential section of the boardwalk was destroyed; the casino-front boardwalk survived with minimal damage.

  In May 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was unconstitutional, opening the door to sports betting across the country. New Jersey had initiated the lawsuit, but was actually the third state to legalize sports betting, behind Nevada and Delaware. Governor Phil Murphy signed sports betting into law in June 2018. Gross gaming revenue from the city's nine operating casinos totaled $2.79 billion in 2022, a 9% increase over the previous year.

• 7. Monopoly, the Boardwalk, and Living Culture

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  Ruth Hoskins first learned the Monopoly game in Indianapolis, then brought it back to Atlantic City, where she made a new board using local street names. A group of friends learned it from her, and the game eventually reached Charles Darrow, who modified it and claimed it as his own invention. The street names that Darrow passed on to Parker Brothers were drawn from Atlantic City's actual geography, and the relative prices on the board reflected the social status of those neighborhoods at the time, with wealthier white streets priced higher and streets in Black and Asian neighborhoods valued lower.

  Marvin Gardens, the most expensive yellow property on the board, is actually a misspelling of the real place name, Marven Gardens. Charles Todd's handmade Monopoly board introduced the error, which Darrow copied and Parker Brothers then published. It was not until 1995 that Parker Brothers formally acknowledged the mistake and apologized to Marven Gardens residents, though the spelling was never corrected. Illinois Avenue in the real city was renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the 1980s.

  The boardwalk itself became home to attractions that went well beyond hotel lobbies. Steel Pier opened in 1898 and billed itself as "The Showplace of the Nation." Horse diving, introduced by William "Doc" Carver, drew crowds in the early 20th century alongside the Diving Bell and human high-divers. Captain John L. Young opened "Young's Million Dollar Pier" in 1906 and built a marble mansion on the seaward end with lighting and landscaping designed by his longtime friend Thomas Alva Edison.

  Rolling chairs first appeared in 1876 for disabled visitors and became available to the general public in 1887. By 1973, when tramcars carrying 25 passengers each were introduced, the number of rolling wicker chairs had fallen from the thousands to as few as 10. The Miss America competition had its own deep roots in the city, originating on the 7th of September, 1921, as a two-day event. Margaret Gorman won the first grand prize, a 3-foot Golden Mermaid trophy. The pageant was launched specifically to extend the tourist season past the Labor Day weekend, and it was nationally televised from 1954 onward, reaching its peak in the early 1960s as the highest-rated program on American television.

• 8. The City Behind the Boardwalk

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  As of the 2020 census, Atlantic City had a population of 38,497, down from 40,517 counted in 2000. The median age was 37.9 years, and 99.9% of residents lived in urban areas. Black or African American residents made up 35.6% of the population, Hispanic or Latino residents made up 29.9%, and Asian residents made up 16.2%.

  In 2022, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority ranked Atlantic City second on its list of the state's food desert communities, behind Camden. As of 2024, only one functioning supermarket existed in the city: the Save-A-Lot in Renaissance Plaza, an area known for its significant homeless population and drug use. The nearest full-service supermarket was in neighboring Ventnor City, 3 miles away from most of Atlantic City's population. Unemployment ran 50% above the statewide average, and 87% of area residents lacked a car.

  Groundbreaking for a ShopRite supermarket had taken place in October 2021 after Village Super Market received $18.7 million from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority to build it. That deal eventually fell through. In October 2025, the city announced a $20 million deal to redevelop Renaissance Plaza around an expanded Save-A-Lot, using funds from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. The project, expected to finish by the end of 2026, would increase the store's size by 50% to more than 28,000 square feet, adding fresh fruit, vegetables, and meat to what residents can reach without leaving the city.

  The Atlantic City of the 2020s remains a place of sharp contrasts, where the 2019 foreclosure rate was the highest in the nation and where that burden fell most heavily on Black residents in neighborhoods long shaped by redlining, a legacy the Monopoly board, with its own pricing hierarchy, quietly mirrors.