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World Sports Exchange founder Steve Schillinger came under fire early on in his offshore gambling days. This past weekend, one of online gambling’s pioneers was found dead in his Antigua condo, shot in the head, in a story first broken by Gambling911.com on Monday morning.
Authorities are treating his death as a suicide, however, foul play has not yet been ruled out, and with good reason.
World Sports Exchange owed over $1 million when it abruptly shut down last week.
But Schillinger entered the offshore/online gambling scene already with a black eye.
He was accused of stiffing traders on the Pacific Stock Exchange in San Francisco. Business partner, Jay Cohen, had long defended Schillinger at the time.
Ominously, Gambling911.com had reported last year that Cohen was said to be on “suicide watch”.
Schillinger was charged along with Cohen in March of 1998 for violating a US Wire Act. Cohen returned to the USA to face trial and was ultimately convicted. He served close to two years behind bars.
Schillinger elected to stay behind.
“I wouldn't go back there and be handcuffed and put in jail and be at their mercy,” Schillinger said at the time.
A few years later, Schillinger’s fugitive charges caused him to miss his father’s funeral back in the States.
Times were good back in the early days of WSEX but something went awry along the way.
The company once boasted of a handle between $100 million and $200 million a year. Schillinger helped contribute to those glowing financial numbers as a pioneer of “live in-play wagering”.
All three World Sports Exchange founders – Schilling, Cohen and Hayden Ware – regularly looked down on their competition with Cohen, in particular, taking to the public message boards to bash other online gambling companies. This could explain why WSEX never sought buyers.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
