This state — which lent its name to the most popular poker variant, Texas Hold 'Em — is leaving an awful lot of moola on the table by prohibiting gambling.
years to come. anthony: vast new xanadus would be constructed and would-be kublai khan s rushed to atlantic city, eager to tap into what was assured to be a never-ending gusher of prosperity. casino gambling. when casino gambling was sold to the state of new jersey, to atlantic city, as the cure all, it was going to bring it back to its glory days. did that ever happen? brian: i mean, you drove around today, did you think this place is better than it was then? do you think, do you think it helped? anthony: no, i don t. new jersey native brian donahue is a reporter with 20 years experience focusing on south jersey. dock s oyster house, an establishment that survived prohibition, the great depression, two world wars, numerous declines and rebirths, still here, still great, a symbol of what atlantic city was and should be again, could be again. brian: to bring a city back after its decline is a really complicated, hard, process and they wanted easy answers and
oil and vinegar, which soaks into that soft, fresh baked bread and marries it all together into a soggy glorious delivery vehicle for deliciousness. there we go, thank you. waitress: italian sub, enjoy. anthony: aw, it s such a beautiful thing they shred the lettuce and everything. you used to come here as a kid? johnny: yes, my father, he would order like a pastrami sandwich. anthony: yeah. johnny: and i d eat, like, a third of it and he d he eat the rest of it. then my brother would eat eggs and bacon, so we had to order what he liked. he was a real trencherman, he could really eat. anthony: asbury park, like its close cousin atlantic city, with whom it had so much in common, suffered from much of the same problems. 14 years ago last time i came it was a shell of itself. dying, the beach is empty, a sad and forlorn place. unlike atlantic city though, asbury park fought to fix itself to become again the kind of place that anybody would want to live in. they didn t look for
casino gambling was seen as an easy answer. anthony: yes, it sure sounded like a good idea. brian: they were going to put this plan in effect. 12 casinos here, bring everybody up from the top down. it hasn t worked. now you re left with just 12 casinos. anthony: and if you re looking for an example of lemming like lurch towards a shiny new cliff face from which to tumble, look no further than this $2.4 billion goat rodeo, the revel. it opened in 2012 and closed less than two years later the most expensive casino in new jersey history. brian: they just forged ahead with it. the hubris was incredible. anthony: what were they thinking? brian: short term money and at a time when all these other casinos were opening all over the entire east coast. anthony: which is nuts. it s economics 101. anthony: casinos, of course, by design neglect the city s existing assets. salt air, a walk by the glorious north atlantic, the greatest of