Crime in Atlantic City

A FREE Report gives Christie hope that Atlantic City can be saved but confirms the truth of CRIME in Atlantic City --

“I think you have to be cautious when you combine casino and family friendly,” he said. Casinos are adult entertainment. Las vegas tried to sell itself like that and it didn't work.”


Of Market Saturation --
A chart within the report illustrates the dramatic uptick in slot machines outside Atlantic City since 2006, including 79,000 between 2006 and 2008 in places like Yonkers, N.Y., and Bethleham, Pa., and about 115,000 scheduled to surface between late 2009 and 2012.

Of CRIME --
...expecting to see a “clean and safe” Atlantic City by July 1, 2011. Many casino executives and city officials have argued that safety concerns are merely based on inaccurate perceptions, which the governor alluded to during his visit to Atlantic City this week.


But the McKinsey report refers to it as fact, citing statistics that show the city’s violent crime rate in 2009 far exceeded the national average and trumps other cities such as Trenton and Biloxi, Miss, according to federal statisitics.

Data from the New Jersey State Police and the Casino Control Commission, however, present a brighter picture, including numbers that show violent crimes rose 27 percent in the United States from 1978 to 2008 but rose only 4 percent here. Thefts dropped 4 percent nationwide in the same period. In Atlantic City, they fell 43 percent.

Those of us who have argued the facts and statistics have been shouted down by the Gambling Industry that would create the false impression about Gambling and Crime.

Perception or not, negative images of Atlantic City go a long way to turning off visitors, and the report presents two notable abandoned sites that would likely fall within the governor’s newly proposed Tourism District to convey that blight is not tucked away in the city’s four corners.

One of the photos shows an abandoned lot two blocks from the Atlantic City Convention Center. Another captures a vacant tract in the middle of the Boardwalk strip formerly occupied by the Sands Casino Hotel, which was imploded to make way for development from Pinnacle Entertainment that never came to fruition.

The report, which was provided to the commission free of charge, also supplies unattributed quotes from consumers about the resort and its cleanliness.

“I do not like seeing the abandoned buildings, pawn shops and empty lots right next to casinos,” one visitor told the consultants. “At night, it’s like a ghost town.”