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You can bet your last dime on it: Americans love to have fun. The name Atlantic City has meant "fun" since 1854, when visionary investor Dr. Jonathan Pitney saw a fortune to be made by turning the dune-covered Absecon Island into a resort. He guessed right, because Atlantic City would become the country's leading vacation spot, a popular Broadway show stop, and home of the Miss America Pageant. But Atlantic City fell on hard times in the 1950s, and in 1976, voters legalized regulated gambling to pull it out of its doldrums. Since then, Atlantic City has been synonymous with "casinos," "bus tours" and "wild weekend getaways." Today the famous Boardwalk -- the same one immortalized on the Monopoly board, which takes all of its streets from Atlantic City -- is lined with towering, flashy pleasure domes where ordinary folks come to play billions of dollars every year. Occasionally, one of them walks out of Atlantic City richer than when he or she arrived, and that's what keeps the masses huddled over slot machines and craps tables, confident the next roll will be the lucky one. Who really gets rich in Atlantic City? The casino owners of course. Billionaire real estate mogul and tabloid darling Donald Trump owns two of the most prominent hotel/casinos on the Boardwalk.