I remember being in Atlantic City before gambling was voted in ... sorry state of affairs. No different today. Gambling might have given them a brief period of relative prosperity but it sure hasn’t lasted.
Gambling was never good for the residents of Atlantic City, not the Blacks, anyway. The poor Blacks thought that it would bring jobs, and maybe it did, as hotel maids, kitchen workers, cab drivers and other low level employment. What it mostly brought though, was prostitution and drugs. All the gains that the Black community had made were lost when the young people saw what they thought was easy money and high living.