Atlantic City - Category of Backgroud

Each of Atlantic City's dozen casinos , which also act as luxury hotels, conference centers and concert halls, has a slightly different image, despite the apparent uniformity of vast, richly ornamented halls, slot machines, relentless flashing lights and incessant noise, chandeliers, mirrors, and a disorienting absence of clocks or windows.

By far the most ostentatious (and "The Don" wouldn't have it any other way) is Donald Trump's Disneyesque Taj Mahal . Occupying nearly twenty acres and over forty stories high, this gigantic but oddly anticlimactic piece of Far Eastern kitsch stands opposite the arcade-packed Steel Pier at the north end of the Boardwalk, dotted with glittering minarets and onion domes. It is one of the largest gambling casinos on earth, precariously tottering on the edge of bankruptcy. At the other end of the scale, the Claridge , Indiana Avenue and the Boardwalk, dubs itself "the friendly casino" and is smaller, darker and more downmarket than the others. Sands , next door at South Indiana Avenue, is a noisy and popular venue with a vague circus theme. Both these properties are slightly off the Boardwalk, accessible by a glass-covered slow-moving sidewalk with accompanying taped music from the various stars who have played Atlantic City. Caesars , Arkansas Avenue and the Boardwalk, has an uninspired Roman theme, with statues of Greek gods, marble columns and laurel wreaths at every turn.

All casinos are open 24 hours a day, and have a strict minimum age requirement , so be prepared to show ID to prove you're 21 or older if you plan to gamble.

ATLANTIC CITY , on Absecon Island just off the midpoint of the Jersey shoreline, has been a tourist magnet since 1854, when Philadelphia speculators created it as a rail terminal resort. The real-life model for the board game Monopoly , it has an impressive history of popular culture, boasting the nation's first Boardwalk (1870), the world's first Big Wheel (1892), the first color postcards (1893) and the first Miss America Beauty Pageant (cunningly devised to extend the tourist season in 1921). During Prohibition and the Depression, Atlantic City was a center for rum-running, packed with speakeasies and illegal gambling dens. Thereafter, in the face of increasing competition from Florida, it slipped into a steep decline, until city officials decided in 1976 to open up the resort to legal gambling .

Traveling to Atlantic City by bus can be a real money-spinner; casino-sponsored buses from New York, Philadelphia and other points along the coast give away vouchers exchangeable for cash and free meals to a value well above the fare. It's hoped that you will spend all this money and more in the casinos, but you can easily cash it and leave. The brand new bus terminal at Atlantic and Ohio is served by Greyhound (tel 609/345-6617 or 1-800/231-2222) and New Jersey Transit (tel 973/762-5100 or 1-800/772-3606) as well as several other bus companies connecting the city with New York, Washington, DC and Philadelphia.

New Jersey Transit trains ($6 one-way, $12 round-trip) run between Atlantic City and Philadelphia, from the new train station next to the Convention Center at 1 Miss America Way (tel 1-800/AC-TRAIN). Atlantic City International Airport in Pomona (tel 609/645-7895) has direct flights to Philadelphia, as well as further afield to cities in Florida and the Midwest; a shuttle bus service connects the airport with the city proper ($20; tel 1-888/640-2222). For maps and information, head for the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Association , 2314 Pacific Ave (MonFri 9am5pm; tel 609/348-7100 or 1-888/228-4748, www.atlanticcitynj.com ). Two satellite offices are open longer hours try the helpful visitor information desk in Ocean One Mall on the Boardwalk (daily 11am7pm) or the new visitors center on the AC Expressway one mile east of the Atlantic City toll plaza (summer MonThurs 9am5pm, FriSun 9am8pm, winter daily 9am5pm; tel 609/449-7130 or 1-888/AC-VISIT).

Atlantic City is easy to walk around, although it is unwise to stray further from the five-mile Boardwalk along the ocean than the parallel Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic avenues, as other parts of the city can be dangerous at night. Ventnor and Margate, to the south on Absecon Island, are served by buses along Atlantic Avenue. Pale blue Jitneys (tel 609/344-8642) offers a 24-hour minibus service the length of Pacific Avenue, the #1 route traveling as far as Ventnor ($1.50 exact change required).

Various bike rental stands along the Boardwalk charge about $3 per hour, although cycling is only permitted from 6am until 10am in the summer.