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It may not be long until we start hearing online gambling foes in Washington throwing the name "Ken Weitzner" into their self-absorbed agendas to ban Internet poker and sports betting. Weitzner and his wife Jackie Balance were discovered this past weekend dead of an apparent double suicide.
Weitzner was the proprietor of a popular sports betting portal EOG.com and if the rumors emerge as fact, he may become the biggest poster child for the GOP's declaration that gambling ruins lives. In the case of Weitzner and his wife, gambling may have killed them.
No motive is known for the apparent double suicide but stories almost immediately began emerging that Weitzner owed several hundred thousand dollars in gambling debts and took his life because he could not pay. Of course there are other rumors circulating: One being an indictment tied to illegal gambling activity was about to be handed down against the EOG.com founder.
Weitzner was there when the first online gambling website debuted way back in 1996 - Sports International. He ran a "pay-for-picks" sports handicapping website prior to launching one of the first online gambling news and information portals, TheRx.com. Among its first adveritsers was none other than Ruth Parasol, founder of the behemoth PartyGaming enterprise. At the time she was involved with an online casino venture based in the Dominican Republic.
As part of a GOP memo leaked this week expressing outrage over attempts to legalize online poker, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee, said in a statement that he would continue to push for implementation of the 2006 law hardening the prohibition for online gaming. "Our children and families need this protection," Bachus said.
Ironically, Bachus' own state is one that is pushing forward to legalize land-based gambling in an effort to boost the local economy.
Authorities investigating the Weitzner deaths expect toxicology tests to take several weeks. It is reported, however, that a suicide note was left behind by the couple though early indications suggests little details were provided that would explain a motive.
Alejandro Botticelli, Gambling911.com
