Atlantic City and the resort cycle background to the legalization of gambling

Stansfield, Charles A. Jr. “Atlantic City and the Resort Cycle: Background to the Legalization of Gambling”, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. V, No. 2, April/June 1978, pp. 238–251. Legalization of casino gambling in Atlantic City was politically feasible only following widespread voter recognition of the old resort's economic and social plight. The success of a statewide referendum was attributed to the concept that only a radical change in Atlantic City's crowd-attracting formula would be successful as it had become obsolescent as a resort partly due to changes in transport technology and recreation geography. There is an apparent cycle in the development, expansion, shift in socio-economic base of patronage, and decline of resorts; Atalantic City's century and a quarter existence is used as a case study of this resort cycle.