Atlantic City ushered in the era of 'gaming,' as the industry likes to call it, on the East Coast-but today, city and state officials are bickering over last-ditch proposals to pull the city back from the precipice of bankruptcy. It was the ultimate Faustian bargain: Gambling industry investments would save the fading grand dame of the Jersey Shore. In 1976, visions of dollars sloshing into municipal and state coffers lured New Jersey voters into establishing casino gambling into Atlantic City.

Four decades ago, Atlantic City rolled the dice on the city's future-and lost.