How Atlantic City went from a bustling tourist hub to a ghost town

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Mark Makela/Reuters

Signage from the Trump Plaza Casino in Atlantic City is removed after its closing in 2014.

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Atlantic City was once New Jersey's largest tourist attraction. As the first city to provide gambling outside of Nevada, it provided those on the East Coast a place to vacation on the beach and gamble.

But the city has seen hard times these past few years; five of the city's 12 casinos closed between 2013 and 2016, and Atlantic City's unemployment rate is 6.3% (well above the national rate of 4%).

Just this May, the Trump Taj Mahal - which originally opened in 1990 - sold for four cents on the dollar. While its buyer, Hard Rock International, has plans to renovate the casino and hotel, it might not be worth the $375 million investment given a report that was recently released by the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Agency.

The report warned of the possibility of an "extreme" sea-level-rise scenario that could cause chronic flooding and have some coastal cities completely disappear underwater by 2100. One of the most at-risk cities, according to the report, is Atlantic City.

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