 An effort by Lazarow to restrict casino jobs to Atlantic City residents was similarly unsuccessful.With Lazarow on hand, Resorts International Hotel and Casino opened on May 26, 1978, the first legalized gambling casino on the East Coast of the United States and the first outside Nevada.Lazarow was recognized by the "Guinness Book of World Records" for a July 1977 publicity stunt, in which the mayor shook more than 11,000 hands in a single day, breaking the record previously held by Theodore Roosevelt, who had set the record with 8,513 handshakes at a White House reception on January 1, 1907.