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Atlantic City is better than ever! This fun filled destination, famous for gambling and ritzy casinos, offers great entertainment, plenty activities, good restaurants, shopping, relaxing on the beach, and more.

While casino gambling remains its major attraction, the city is intent on becoming a destination that offers fun and excitement for the entire family. 

With over 37 million visitors a year, this New Jersey beach front resort now rivals other major tourist destinations like Las Vegas and Disney world.

It certainly lives up to its motto “Always Turned On!”

Dr. Jonathon Pitney originally developed the city as a seaside health resort for the wealthy residents of Philadelphia. Development as a major resort for the not so wealthy took off significantly after 1854 when Philadelphia investors created a rail line linking Atlantic City with Camden, just across the river from Philadelphia.

It is the real-life model for the board game Monopoly, the nation's first Boardwalk, the world's first big Ferris wheel, the first color postcards, and the home of the first Miss America Beauty Pageant.

During prohibition and the depression, this Jersey shore tourist attraction was a center for bootlegging, smuggling, speakeasies and illegal gambling. The mafia found Atlantic City to be a good place for profitable business operations and vacationing. The nearby Pine Barrens were convenient and well suited for the mafia's activities. Because of its seclusion and forest cover, and close proximity to Atlantic City (as well as New York and Philadelphia where many mafia resided), the Pine Barrens proved to be ideal for distilling, bootlegging, and body disposal.

It was here where the Mafia established itself as a national organization. Fearing the end of prohibition and the loss of profitable bootlegging operations, Mafia leaders from the Midwest and East Coast, --- Al Capone Frank Costello, Meyer Lansky, and Lucky Luciano --- held their first national conference in 1929 at the President Hotel. It was here that they were able to develop a system of arbitration and solidify networks made through bootlegging to become a national organization.

With airline travel flourishing and the Caribbean and Florida becoming a magnet for east coast tourists, Atlantic City experienced a decline during the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. 

This phenomenon prompted visionary city officials to seek an alternative draw as they campaigned to get the state to open the city to gambling in the hopes of revitalizing the city and restoring it to its former glory days. 

With the passage of the Casino Gambling Referendum in 1976, and with the opening of the first casino at Resorts International in 1978, Atlantic City began its resurgence as a major destination for fun and entertainment.

Since then, the City has experienced continued development of hotels, casinos, nite clubs, entertainment, and other fun attractions offering more than casino gambling.

Unlike the casinos that may require getting a payday loan to continue to enjoy the action, get out and enjoy the many other attractions that are less expensive and just as much fun."

Tags:  gambling atlantic philadelphia bootlegging casino entertainment national destination casinos resort