Casino Connection Atlantic City

Boxing to Boardwalk

Mohegan Sun manager lived in boxing world while dealing

by Dave Bontempo

Glen Costales understands the boxing-gambling marriage more than most in the casino industry. He lives it. The Willingboro native, now employed at Connecticut's Mohegan Sun casino, enjoyed two elements of Atlantic City's first golden era. He wrapped a 12-year dealing stint at Tropicana, Atlantis and the Showboat around a professional boxing career. Costales fashioned a 7-2 record and headlined at Tropicana's fabled weekly boxing series while working there. As Atlantic City became the world's new boxing capital, Costales flourished. He worked, socialized, trained and fought. Costales sparred with world champions Alexis Arguello and Joe Manley, waged his own battles, and then dealt to the high-rolling boxing fans. "What could be better than working for a casino?" says Costales, now a table games manager at Mohegan Sun and a member of its boxing commission. "You get a 20-minute break every hour, free food, great benefits. I had no degree, now I'm making good money. You show me any other business that will take a kid with no education and enable him to succeed. This is the best industry there is." Costales traveled indirectly to this discovery. He was an amateur boxer who met Pleasantville trainer Mike Hall on a construction site. Hall, who has trained a number of world champions including Virgil Hill, runs the gym where Costales decided to train. Costales gained Atlantic City work access with a casino security job, but quickly sought the better pay of dealing. Costales enrolled at dealer school and began his double professional life. "They were wonderful days. I learned a lot in Atlantic City," Costales recalls. "We had, I felt, the greatest employees in the country. You had to be sharp because the action was fast. You acquire that foundation and you can deviate any way you want. So many of us were young, we had money and we were out of our parents' house for the first time." Costales became realistic about the "Sweet Science" and channeled more energy into gaming. "I lost to a guy I had no business losing to and faced the fact that I hadn't trained enough," Costales says. "You start to realize that here are some guys living in sub-par housing, taking a bus or two to get to the gym and here you are driving a new car. "Maybe they want it more." Costales ascended a different ladder, toward a professional gaming "championship." He became a dual-rate employee at Showboat in 1988 and stayed for three years. Like many Atlantic City professionals, he departed during the national gaming boom. He appeared at Turning Stone in New York; Vicksburg, Mississippi; St. Petersburg, Florida; Iowa and Harrah's in New Orleans before finding the 10-year permanence of Mohegan Sun. "It was like a Michael Jackson victory tour," Costales says, laughing. "You see many great places. Vicksburg was a wonderful town, nice people. If the light is green, maybe you go, maybe you don't, nobody is in a big hurry. On the St. Petersburg boat, there was a guy who used to come on my boat, complaining that nobody would fight him. That guy is Winky Wright (one of the world's top fighters now). It was a learning experience, the whole deal." Costales forged an empathetic management style throughout this process. He learned the million-dollar implications of respect. Costales, whose father worked in the military, also applied a moral code gleaned from his parents. "Most of the time, people just want to be treated fairly," Costales says. "Give them respect. Sometimes you pitch and sometimes you catch in the world," he adds, invoking the ring analogy of taking and giving punishment. "You never know what a customer is going through. Be compassionate toward that person. Maybe there's a divorce, maybe there is something aggravating him that you know nothing about. Always give somebody a way out. Let a guy have the benefit of the doubt in a dispute. Most times he'll give it back on the next roll anyway. "My parents told me soap costs nothing and manners cost nothing, so there is no reason to be dirty or rude." Costales is grateful to a casino business that pays well. He gains additional psychic wealth from the $100-a-night boxing commission inspection job. "You are assigned a fighter," Costales says. "You make sure his hands get taped, that he doesn't drink anything, that his cup is on, the laces are sealed right, that there are no tattoos on his back. You pay attention between rounds to the fighter and his corner. It's fun; it keeps me around the game." Boxing still excites the former Atlantic City employee. So does the gaming world and his third job, with a mortgage company. As he did in Atlantic City, Costales burns both ends of the candle. And he loves it.

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