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How Atlantic City went from a bustling tourist hub to a ghost town

Sarah Jacobs   

How Atlantic City went from a bustling tourist hub to a ghost town
Finance1 min read

Atlantic City 2016

Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

The Revel casino resort, which is now closed.

Atlantic City was once New Jersey's largest tourist attraction. It boasted a beautiful boardwalk and beaches, and it was the first city to provide gambling outside of Nevada.

But the city has seen hard times these past few years; four of the city's 12 casinos closed between 2013 and 2015, and things don't appear to be improving. According to Newsweek, Atlantic City's unemployment rate is 13.8% - the 10th-highest in the nation - and its mortgage foreclosure rate is America's highest.

Even Donald Trump, who once owned and operated three casinos there, has declared the once-bustling gambling city "a disaster".

The city has re-branded multiple times in the hopes of attracting more tourists, and Revel, a new multi-billion dollar resort, was built (and then subsequently went bankrupt), but nothing has brought Atlantic City back onto its feet. The Borgata, which is opening a new $14 million nightclub experience this year, may be the only bright spot in the city's future.

Now the streets and boardwalk of Atlantic City look more like a ghost town than a tourist hub.

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