Atlantic City — The May 13-16, 1929 Atlantic City Conference Hosted by Nucky Johnson, a City With One Functioning Supermarket-Type Store as of 2024, and Nine Casinos Generating $2.79 Billion in 2022 Gross Gaming Revenue

A Real 1929 Crime Summit, a Real Food-Desert Crisis, and a Real Casino Boom-Bust

Atlantic City's identity starts with a real, dated piece of American organized-crime history. Confirmed via Wikipedia's dedicated Atlantic City Conference entry: from May 13-16, 1929, local boss Enoch "Nucky" Johnson hosted the Atlantic City Conference at the Ritz-Carlton and Ambassador Hotels -- the Breakers Hotel had refused accommodations to non-WASP guests -- providing hotels, entertainment, and a guarantee of police non-interference. More than 60 crime bosses attended from across the country: organizers Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, and Johnny Torrio; a Chicago delegation including Al Capone, Frank Nitti, and Jake Guzik; and delegations from Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Boston, Kansas City, Florida, and Louisiana (older-generation "Mustache Petes" Giuseppe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano notably stayed away). The conference addressed ending violent bootleg wars in New York and Chicago, establishing cooperative liquor monopolies, planning investment in legitimate breweries and distilleries ahead of Prohibition's anticipated end, discussing national gambling operations and wire services, and reportedly discussing how to manage law-enforcement pressure on Al Capone. Historians regard it as the earliest organized-crime summit held in the United States and the foundational step toward the National Crime Syndicate. Johnson himself reportedly earned up to $500,000 annually from kickbacks on illegal liquor, gambling, prostitution, and construction during the Prohibition era.

Layered onto that dated history is a second, genuinely different story that this page treats with care rather than sensationalism: a real, current food-desert crisis affecting the city's own year-round residents. In 2022, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority ranked Atlantic City second on its list of the state's food desert communities, behind Camden. As of 2024, only one functioning supermarket-type store operates in the city -- a Save-A-Lot in Renaissance Plaza -- with the nearest full-service supermarket three miles away in neighboring Ventnor City. A previously announced ShopRite project broke ground in October 2021 after Village Super Market obtained $18.7 million in Casino Reinvestment Development Authority funding, but the project ultimately failed to open. In October 2025, the city announced a new $20 million Renaissance Plaza redevelopment deal, expanding the Save-A-Lot by 50% to 28,000 square feet, with completion expected by the end of 2026. Whether that timeline holds is not confirmed here -- it should be read as an announced, in-progress project, not a completed one. Atlantic City is simultaneously a major tourism and casino economy and a city with a documented, serious grocery-access gap for its own residents; both things are true at once, and neither should be minimized or treated as a punchline.

Grounding both stories is the real, dramatic boom-bust arc of the casino economy that actually defines Atlantic City unlike any neighboring shore town. Confirmed via Wikipedia: New Jersey voters approved casino gambling via a 1976 referendum (56%-44%); Resorts Atlantic City opened May 26, 1978, as the first legal casino in the eastern United States. The industry's mid-2010s collapse is real and dated: four casinos closed in 2014 alone -- Atlantic Club (January 13), Showboat (August 31), Revel (September 2), and Trump Plaza (September 16) -- and the Trump Taj Mahal closed October 10, 2016. Revel had filed for bankruptcy in February 2013 after its valuation fell from $2.4 billion to $450 million; the property was purchased for $200 million in 2017 by AC Ocean Walk, LLC and reopened in 2018 as Ocean Casino Resort. The city has since stabilized to nine operating casinos, with 2022 gross gaming revenue of $2.79 billion, a 9% increase from 2021's $2.55 billion, amid real competitive pressure from casinos in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New York. Separately, the Miss America pageant originated in Atlantic City on September 7, 1921, explicitly created to extend the tourist season past Labor Day weekend; Margaret Gorman won the first competition and received a 3-foot Golden Mermaid trophy. The pageant was hosted in Atlantic City from inception through 2004, and again from 2013-2018, with ratings peaking in the early 1960s as the highest-rated program on American television -- a real, documented example of the city's century-long habit of inventing tourism draws to extend its season. Atlantic City also inspired the U.S. version of Monopoly through its local street names, a story this site's Margate City build covers in depth; it is not re-told here.

On current figures, the honest approach is to hedge rather than guess. Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, on Absecon Island; Lenape people used the region as a summer settlement before European colonization, Jeremiah Leeds built a year-round residence around 1783, the town developed as a resort starting in 1850, was named "Atlantic City" in early 1853, and was incorporated May 1, 1854, from portions of Egg Harbor Township and Galloway Township. Total area is 17.21 square miles -- 10.76 land, 6.45 water -- bordering Absecon, Brigantine, Egg Harbor Township, Galloway Township, Pleasantville, Ventnor City, and the Atlantic Ocean. The Camden and Atlantic Railroad began service in 1854, and by 1874 roughly 500,000 passengers annually traveled to Atlantic City by rail; the first road to the mainland was completed in 1870, initially charging a 30-cent toll. The Atlantic City Boardwalk opened June 26, 1870, and today measures 5.5 miles, recognized as the world's longest and busiest boardwalk. The 2020 census counted 38,497 residents, down 2.7% from 39,558 in 2010, itself down from 40,517 in 2000; median age 37.9; demographic composition approximately 26.5% white, 38.3% Black/African American, 15.6% Asian, and 30.5% Hispanic/Latino. The city operates as a Faulkner Act Mayor-Council municipality (Plan D) since July 1, 1982, with a mayor and nine-member City Council (six ward seats, three at-large) serving four-year terms; as of 2026, Mayor Marty Small Sr. (Democrat) serves a term ending December 31, 2029, having succeeded Frank M. Gilliam Jr. after his October 3, 2019 resignation, and in a court-ordered November 2024 special election, Republican Maria Lacca won the 5th Ward seat -- the first Republican win there since 1988 -- after Democrat Muhammed "Anjum" Zia was removed for not residing in the city. Hurricane Sandy struck Atlantic City on October 29, 2012, causing flooding and power outages but only minimal damage to tourist areas, and produced an all-time record low barometric pressure reading of 943 mb (27.85 inches) for the city and the state of New Jersey. This is also this site's thirteenth New Jersey market, and New Jersey's tax structure remains genuinely different from the no-state-sales-tax framing used across every Delaware market on this site: New Jersey does levy a state sales tax, and Atlantic City's Tourism District has historically applied its own distinctive local sales-tax structure -- no specific current rate is stated here as fact. No current (2026) population figure beyond the 2020 census count, current unemployment or poverty rate beyond the dated 2014 (13.8%) and 2010 census (25.3%) figures, current median home price, active-listing count, current Atlantic City or Atlantic County property tax rate, specific current FEMA flood-zone designation, or specific current restaurant, shop, or non-casino business name is stated here as fact; direct those questions to Atlantic County government, Atlantic City's own finance office, and the State of New Jersey. This page is independent research, not legal, tax, insurance, or financial advice; confirm anything time-sensitive with the appropriate licensed professional or local government office before making a decision.