Yet the gaming industry nationwide is on the ascent, even as three major Atlantic City casinos threaten to close within the next few weeks. In 2010, Atlantic City casinos took in $3.6 billion meanwhile, the city's median household income between 20 was just under $30,000. They see an industry that has grown fat in their backyard, while sharing little of the profit. Other teenagers were able to come in and get work, and our teenagers were not.'įor Abdur-Raheem and some other residents of Atlantic City, impending casino closures are just another bump in the community's long, fraught relationship with legalized gaming.
Whereas we always had jobs as teenagers, the teenagers here were not being hired. 'I was hearing more and more stories about hopelessness, about people not being able to be hired,' said Raheem, the author of a recent book about growing up in 'the other Atlantic City.' 'Last hired, first fired. 'It benefits one side of the city and not the other.
