Atlantic City during the 1980s
Atlantic City is a resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, known for its casinos, boardwalks, and beaches. The city was incorporated on 1 May 1854, and the first boardwalk was built in 1870 to keep the sand out of hotel lobbies. In the early part of the 20th century, Atlantic City underwent a rapid building boom, with many of the modest boarding houses along the boardwalk being replaced with large hotels such as the Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel and the Traymore Hotel. The 1920s, with tourism at its peak, was Atlantic City's golden age, and much liquor was consumed and gambling regularly took place in the back rooms of nightclubs and restaurants, despite the Prohibition laws. From the 1930s to the 1960s, nightclubs in Atlantic City were very popular, but many of the resort's great hotels were suffering from high vacancy rates by the late 1960s. In 1976, casino gambling was legalized in an attempt to revitalize the city, leading to mob warfare during the 1980s; the Genovese crime family and the Philadelphia crime family of the American Mafia fought over control of Atlantic City casinos in one of the bloodiest mob wars in history. With the redevelopment of Las Vegas and the opening of casinos in Connecticut in the early 1990s, along with the construction of new casinos in the Philadelphia metro area in the 2000s, led to Atlantic City's renewed decline. In 2016, Atlantic City had a population of 38,735 people, with 35.7% being African-American, 28.3% Hispanic, 17.3% white, 16.7% Asian, 2.3% multiracial, .5% Native American, and .1% other.
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