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Examines the effects of legalized casino gambling in Atlantic City on employment, housing, crime, economic growth, and social conditions. In November 1976, the state of New Jersey embarked upon a bold experiment when the voters approved a referendum to authorize casino gambling in Atlantic City. Expectations were high: the gaming industry could rejuvenate a dying city core, employment would swell, the tax base would broaden and welfare rolls diminish, tourism might spread through the state, and the cruel spectacle of a poverty-stricken community would be eliminated. The Atlantic City Gamble reports the results of this experiment and evaluates casinos as a tool for economic revitalization, a painless source of revenue. The casinos are enormously profitable―but for whom? The city has paid a huge toll in human and economic hardship. There are 30,000 new jobs, but little spillover into non-casino employment. Crime rates have skyrocketed. Housing has been priced beyond the reach of minority groups and the elderly. In 1982, the casinos paid more than $117 million in state taxes, but much of the projected bonanza to Atlantic City has been swallowed by the industry's need for expanded municipal services, such as police protection. Fears of the old connection between gambling and organized crime may be exaggerated, but few can deny that the gaming industry―with its immense daily cash flow―harbors a vast potential for corruption. The state promoted visions of a glorious rebirth, but it failed to provide a governing mechanism that could produce the promised rewards. Would better planning and research enable any government to cope with such instant large-scale business and the political clout it carries? Economic strangulation has motivated at least eight other states to think about letting in casinos. The decisions they make will have far-reaching social and economic consequences, and must be based on a set of facts as accurate and comprehensive as possible. In searching out the lessons of Atlantic City, the authors have provided a sobering glimpse into the intricacies of legalized gambling.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- An Introduction, of Sorts -- Acknowledgements -- Part 1: Theoretical Concerns -- Am I a Siamese Twin? -- Popular Culture for Pleasure and Profit -- Discovering Pop Culture -- The Ugly Ones: Images of Americans in Asia and Elsewhere -- Part 2: Comics -- Politics in the Comics -- Unflattering Definitions: Significant Stereotypes of Americans in European (French and Italian) Comics -- Dagwood in the American Psyche -- Part 3: Television -- Television as an Instrument of Terror: A Theoretical Perspective -- The Last Word (Television Columns from Focus Magazine) -- The Six Million Dollar Man -- Part 4: Advertising -- Analyzing the Advertisement -- Pale Horse, Pale Bather: An Analysis of the White Horse Advertisement with the Lady in the Bath -- Women and Advertising: Selling with Sex -- The Wednesday Specials as Theatre of the Absurd -- Part 5: Humor -- Humor as a System of Communication -- Huck Finn as an Existential Hero: Making Sense of Absurdity -- The Great Game of Academic -- Part 6: Fads, Foods, Artifacts -- Status in Foods, or Cuisines as Codes -- Yanqui Bread: The Great White Way -- Some Thoughts on Threads -- Varieties of Topless Experience -- Part 7: Amongst the UK -- Hamburger Heaven -- London's Underground as a Work of Art -- Upstairs, Downstairs -- The Pub Life is Changing -- English Encounters