Blackpool where, they said, the sands were always packed and so were the lunches. Once the place for workers to have their holidays, 'Wakes weeks' they were called, where families sat by the sea in their thousands, on the same spot every day for a week, scoffing candy-floss and fish and chips. Today, it is the fifty-first most deprived area in the UK with high unemployment.
Tourists still come, but they spend less and stay fewer days than they did in the resort's heyday.
At the same time Atlantic City was an attraction in the States. In the 1970s it faced many of the problems that are confronting Blackpool now. It had seen a steep economic decline partly because of the ease and availability of affordable air fares throughout America and the construction of convention centres in other cities. Then a local group decided one way to have redevelopment and invigorate the place was to go with casino gambling. There is a chorus of voices agreeing that casinos have brought great benefits to Atlantic City, and they could do the same elsewhere.