Atlantic City is probably my favorite place to hate in the world. First time I was there I was walking to the boardwalk through a parking lot and found the remnants of a small fire with a broken shopping cart, an old office chair, and other trash circled around it, obviously a bunch of weirdos having a little campfire overnight. Then, of course on the boardwalk was a pro wrestling match, complete with a full sized ring, announcer, mustic, and a bunch of WWE wannabees having a match in which they broke 6' fluorescent light bulbs over each other's heads.
It's like the great pacific garbage patch, all the human trash from the NYC to Philly metro just swirls around until it finally clumps together in Atlantic City.
That being said, at 8am on a Saturday it's barely an hour from Philly, so packing a cooler and running down to grab a beach day is still something that's fun to do a few times each summer. I'll only park at the far north end of town and hit the beach there though. Definitely don't go anywhere near the casinos or actually utilize anything in the town.