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Editorial: Florida should take lesson from Atlantic City casinos

There's a lesson for Florida in Atlantic City, the New Jersey beach town that sought to re-create its former glory by marketing itself as Vegas East. Three decades later, the risks of gambling on such an economic development model are apparent. Unemployment and poverty both remain high, and one out of every three casinos is threatening to shut its doors. The industry is not the panacea supporters claim it is, and Floridians should take note.

The irony is that Atlantic City's failure comes as the gambling industry is making increasing inroads across the country in convincing politicians that expanding gambling will solve their tax revenue woes — or at least allow them to capture some of the money flowing to nearby Indian reservations' gambling operations. That's been the pitch in Florida, where the Seminole Indian Tribe has seen its casinos, including one in Tampa, grow exponentially while the state's parimutuel industry of dog and horse tracks and jai alai frontons has had little success in competing.

But as the New York Times highlighted, it's increasingly apparent that there is a saturation point for gambling and it appears to have been reached on the East Coast. Even as the economy has rebounded since the recession, four of the 12 casinos in Atlantic City have announced since January that they plan to close if a buyer cannot be found.