Somach: The Shrink was Like an Annoying, Buzzing Mosquito
Where were you the day "The Shrink" died?
Believe it or not, this coming Sunday will be the one-year anniversary of the bizarre death of one of online gambling's most controversial figures, Ken "The Shrink" Weitzner.
Weitzner, of course, was the gambling-addicted, failed psychiatrist who created two lucrative portals devoted to online sports betting, The Prescription (www.rx.com) and Eye on Gambling (www.eog.com).
After blowing most of his fortune on gambling and bad stock investments, alcoholic Weitzner, 54, and his wife, Jackie, on April 10, 2010, killed themselves inside their Chesapeake, Virginia, USA, mansion.
The couple swallowed a large dose of painkillers, ignited a charcoal-fueld barbecue grill they brought into the house and then slowly suffocated as the grill consumed the oxygen in the duct-tape sealed-off room and spewed noxious carbon monoxide fumes.
As word of the shocking double-suicide spread through the gambling industry, rumored explanations for the couple's demise were all over the speculative board, ranging from they did it to avoid a Mob hit to they did it to avoid being indicted and jailed by the Feds.
A significant percentage of people even believed the suicides were staged, so the couple could secretly relocate--either to avoid the Mob or the Feds, or to go into a witness protection program.
So what is the legacy of "The Shrink"?
It's that there's no legacy at all.
Despite the wacky circumstances of his death (and his life for that matter), only one newspaper--his hometown Virginian-Pilot--reported his suicide.
No other newspaper mentioned anything about it, including the papers in Las Vegas, where he was known.
And no magazines mentioned it either.
Neither did radio or TV.
What's more, Weitzner's stepson, Derek Donahue, has been trying to peddle a book about "The Shrink" but so far has had no success in securing a publishing deal.
And he likely won't.
"The Shrink" was like an annoying, buzzing mosquito that's flying around your head.
As long as the mosquito is alive, you care about it.
But once you swat it dead, you never think about it again.
By Tom Somach
Gambling911.com Staff Writer
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