For decades, Atlantic City was a popular US destination, with glittering casinos, sandy beaches and the boardwalk running along the Atlantic Ocean. Tourists poured in and locals reaped the rewards.

But New Jersey's crown jewel - the inspiration for the well-known Monopoly board game and the setting for HBO's award-winning series Boardwalk Empire - has fallen on hard times.

Four of its once-bustling gambling dens have closed.

Trump Plaza - built in 1984 - formally closed its doors at 6:00 am Tuesday, following the shuttering of Atlantic Club on January 13, Showboat on August 31 and Revel on September 4.

A fifth, the Trump Taj Mahal, may also close in November.

Now the few visitors who turn up are handed free pink magnets in the local museum with the catchphrase "AC don't stop believing" - in a city where a quarter live below the poverty line.

Of the 32,000 people working for casinos in the city, 8,000 have lost their jobs, buffeted by newer gambling halls that have opened in neighboring Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York.

"It is certainly the most dramatic contraction in my experience of this area," said Izzy Posner, executive director of the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism at Stockton College in New Jersey.

"The effects are far reaching," Posner said.

"It's not just the lost jobs, there are knock-on effects on supplies and services, which depend on the spending of casinos."

For nearly 30 years, Atlantic City, a two-hour car journey south of New York, had a monopoly on gambling on the US East Coast.

In 2006, at the peak of the city's glory, Posner explained that the casinos brought in $5.2 billion.