The town began to gradually decline as the automobile made travel to more distant ocean beaches more feasible. However, because gambling was legal in Maryland and the Maryland state line ends at the low-water mark of Virginia's Potomac River shore, from 1949 to 1958, Colonial Beach offered slot machines in pier casinos extending into Maryland waters. This temporarily revitalized the town, although it was sometimes called "the poor man's Las Vegas." However, the piers burned in the 1960s in a devastating fire and the town continued to decline.