Some casino owners, observers and analysts have argued that the nationwide spread of legalized gambling has been good for Vegas -- because, the thinking goes, that legalized gambling trains people and whets their appetites for the "real" thing in Las Vegas. It's like experiential advertising!

But what if you're not Las Vegas? What if you're Atlantic City? Doh! From the Wall Street Journal:

At the beginning of 2007, Atlantic City's 11 casinos were at the top of a wave of prosperity. Starting with the 1978 opening of Resorts, the nation's first casino outside Nevada, Atlantic City for years was the only place to play slots, cards, dice or roulette in the eastern half of the United States. The cash kept pouring in, the busloads of visitors kept coming and the revenue charts went one way: straight up.

And then, they didn't. Now, battered by competition from casinos all around it, Atlantic City is in a fight for its very survival.

The resort is furiously trying to remake itself into a vacation destination that happens to have gambling, but with no guarantee it has a winning hand even as other threats loom, including the possible expansion of casinos to north Jersey racetracks and a growing push for online gambling.