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Speculation has been rampant throughout the gambling world as to why Ken "The Shrink" Weitzner killed himself.
The controversial Weitzner, who ran gambling portal Eye on Gambling (www.eog.com), committed suicide earlier this month at his Virginia home.
The most commonly heard theory, at least according to the many gambling-themed posting forums on the Internet, is that Weitzner, a large sports bettor, got in over his head, owed a lot of money because of losing sports bets and offed himself because he didn't have the money to pay what he owed.
Shortly after Weitzner died, reports surfaced that earlier in the month he had lost half a million dollars on the NCAA basketball championship game by betting Duke.
There were also reports of other massive Weitzner betting losses.
And although the reports were unsubstantiated, they seemed credible because "The Shrink" himself had publicly boasted in the past of his huge bets, most notably a six-figure bet on the Arizona Cardinals-Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl, a game he said he attended with an offshore sportsbook operator.
So did "The Shrink" kill himself because he couldn't pay his gambling debts?
Or was it something else?
We could soon know the answer.
In a matter of weeks, Weitzner's will--if he had one--will be read.
If the will reveals that Weitzner had a lot of assets to be distributed to heirs--he had two step-sons and three step-grandsons--it will quash the speculation that he killed himself because of gambling-driven financial problems.
On the other hand, if the will reveals that he had few or no assets for his heirs, it would fuel the speculation that financial issues led to the suicide.
Weitzner founded sports betting portal The Prescription (www.therx.com) in the mid 1990s and reportedly sold it for about $2 million, to Marty Jensen in 2001.
That means--at least for a while--Weitzner was a millionaire.
How long he remained one was obviously determined by how large his gambling losses were (he was also said to be a big craps bettor, frequenting Las Vegas and Atlantic City).
In 2005, Weitzner started another sports betting portal, Eye on Gambling, despite assuring Jensen when he sold The Prescription that he wouldn't start another, competing website.
Now, in 2010, "The Shrink" is dead, a victim of a self-administered drug overdose of sleeping pills followed by massive exposure to poisonous carbon monoxide fumes.
Did gambling fuel his demise?
We soon may know.
By Tom Somach
Gambling911.com Staff Writer
