In less that two months, just in time for the NFL season, gamblers may be able to place sports bets in Delaware.

Atlantic City has known this was likely to happen – like a boxer seeing the punch coming but unable to block it. It’s unquestionably more bad news for the resort, which is suffering not just from the recession but from waves of competition in nearby states.

New Jersey officials are trying to overturn the 1992 federal ban on sports betting that puts New Jersey at a competitive disadvantage with Delaware. Delaware and three other states were grandfathered under the federal law. But the success of the state’s lawsuit is a longshot – hardly something that Atlantic City or New Jersey can bank on to retain a healthy casino industry and the steady revenue stream it provides to state coffers and the local economy. And even if the lawsuit is successful, sports betting would not be a panacea.

A more far-sighted approach is provided on today’s Commentary page, in a column by James Kennedy, former executive director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. Kennedy offers a six-point, common-sense plan for keeping the Atlantic City economy thriving in the future – from investing in the Atlantic City Rail Line to making sure the culture of the resort is visitor-friendly.

That column, and others we’ve received recently, seem part of a growing consensus that Atlantic City has entered a new era, with different and formidable challenges. There must be an ongoing, serious debate on what the area needs to survive and thrive. The recession will eventually be over. Competition will remain. The region needs to focus with some degree of urgency on this issue: What needs to change to keep this resort from heading into a downward spiral, as it did so many years ago, before casino gaming?

State Sen. James Whelan, D-Atlantic, has entered the debate, too. He’s suggested rethinking gambling regulation in Atlantic City – perhaps scaling back rules that require 500 hotel rooms, or changing other parts of a regulatory structure set up 30 years ago. We’re not ready to endorse his proposals yet, but they need to be part of the discussion.

Sports betting, table games, slots … these are forms of gambling that, soon, will be available throughout the market from which Atlantic City has traditionally drawn its customers. But Atlantic City has some competitive advantages of its own – as Jeffrey Vasser of the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority points out in a letter below. It’s time for the area to get together and focus on a game plan for the future.

And it needs to do it soon.