What Nobody Tells You About Atlantic City

The Food-Access Reality: A Serious, Current Fact of Daily Life

In 2022, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority ranked Atlantic City second on its statewide list of food desert communities, behind only Camden. This is not a dated or exaggerated claim -- it is the state's own economic development agency describing a real, measurable gap in grocery access for a city of nearly 40,000 year-round residents.

As of 2024, only one functioning supermarket-type store operates within Atlantic City itself: a Save-A-Lot in Renaissance Plaza. The nearest full-service supermarket sits roughly three miles away, across the city line in neighboring Ventnor City. For a resident without a car, or for an older resident on a fixed income, that distance is not an abstraction -- it is a real, daily logistical fact that shapes grocery shopping, meal planning, and quality of life.

This is presented here not as a punchline or a knock against the city, but as the kind of honest, on-the-ground reality that anyone seriously considering living in Atlantic City deserves to know before they sign a lease or make an offer. A city can be a genuine, historic beach destination and also be working through a real grocery-access challenge for its own residents. Both things are true here at once.

A Failed ShopRite and a New $20 Million Project -- Real, But Not Finished

The food-access gap is not for lack of trying. A previously announced ShopRite project broke ground in October 2021 after Village Super Market secured $18.7 million in public funding from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. Despite that substantial public investment, the project ultimately failed to open, and Atlantic City was left without the full-service grocery store that funding was meant to deliver.

In October 2025, the city announced a new $20 million redevelopment deal for Renaissance Plaza, expanding the existing Save-A-Lot by 50%, from its current footprint to roughly 28,000 square feet. Completion is expected by the end of 2026. This is worth stating plainly and accurately: as of today, this project is announced and underway, not finished. It is a genuine, funded sign of change for a real problem -- but anyone weighing it as a factor in a housing decision should treat it as an in-progress redevelopment with a stated 2026 target, not a completed amenity already available to residents.

The Casino Industry: A Real Boom-Bust Economy, Not a Sure Thing

New Jersey voters legalized casino gambling in Atlantic City through a 1976 referendum, passing 56% to 44%. Resorts Atlantic City opened May 26, 1978, as the first legal casino in the eastern United States, launching a gaming economy that has defined the city ever since.

That economy has never been a smooth, one-direction climb. The industry's mid-2010s collapse is real and specifically dated: four casinos closed in 2014 alone -- the Atlantic Club on January 13, Showboat on August 31, Revel on September 2, and Trump Plaza on September 16 -- followed by the Trump Taj Mahal's closure on October 10, 2016. Revel itself had filed for bankruptcy in February 2013 after its valuation fell from $2.4 billion to $450 million, before eventually being purchased for $200 million in 2017 and reopening in 2018 as Ocean Casino Resort.

The city has since stabilized to nine operating casinos, generating $2.79 billion in gross gaming revenue in 2022 alone, a 9% increase over 2021's $2.55 billion. But the industry continues to face real, ongoing competitive pressure from casinos in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New York. For anyone whose livelihood, property value, or local economy depends in part on the casino industry, that history of boom and bust -- and the competition still bearing down on it -- is worth understanding rather than assuming today's stability is permanent.

The 1929 Meeting at the Ritz-Carlton That Shaped Organized Crime in America

Long before the food-desert conversation or the modern casino industry, Atlantic City hosted a documented, dated moment in American organized-crime history. From May 13 to 16, 1929, local boss Enoch "Nucky" Johnson hosted the Atlantic City Conference at the Ritz-Carlton and Ambassador Hotels, providing hotels, entertainment, and a guarantee of police non-interference for more than 60 crime bosses who traveled in from across the country.

Attendees included organizers Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, and Johnny Torrio, along with a Chicago delegation featuring Al Capone, Frank Nitti, and Jake Guzik, plus delegations from Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Boston, Kansas City, Florida, and Louisiana. The agenda reportedly covered ending violent bootleg wars in New York and Chicago, establishing cooperative liquor monopolies, planning investment in legitimate breweries and distilleries ahead of Prohibition's eventual end, and discussing national gambling operations. Historians regard it as the earliest organized-crime summit held in the United States and a foundational step toward the National Crime Syndicate.

What This Research Could Not Resolve

This page draws on Wikipedia's own Atlantic City entry, Wikipedia's dedicated Atlantic City Conference entry, and general search results confirming 2025-2026 economic development coverage. It did not find, and does not invent, any current (2026) permanent population figure beyond the 2020 census count of 38,497, a current median home price, active listing counts, or specific current rental rates.

Also not confirmed this research pass: whether the October 2025 Renaissance Plaza redevelopment remains on track for its end-of-2026 completion target as of today; current unemployment or poverty figures beyond the dated 2014 (13.8% unemployment) and 2010 census (25.3% poverty) figures, which should not be read as current 2026 conditions; current gross gaming revenue figures beyond the confirmed 2022 ($2.79 billion) and 2021 ($2.55 billion) totals; current Atlantic City property tax rates or the current Atlantic City Tourism District sales tax rate (New Jersey has its own real state sales tax and its own property-tax structure, distinct from a no-sales-tax state, and neither should be assumed without checking); specific current flood-zone designations for individual Atlantic City parcels; and specific current restaurant, shop, or non-casino business names. Whether Mayor Marty Small Sr. or the current City Council composition remains accurate should also be reconfirmed. Confirm current details directly with Atlantic City's own government offices, Atlantic County government, a New Jersey real estate attorney, and FEMA's Flood Map Service Center. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice.