Chesapeake, VA: Online Betting Pioneer Kenneth Weitzner Found Dead At His Chesapeake Home

April 15th, 2010 Author: A. Mitchell
Online betting pioneer Ken “The Shrink” Weitzner was found dead at his apartment in Chesapeake, Virginia last Saturday, along with his wife Jackie in an apparent double-suicide pact.
Many of his friends and colleagues are still baffled why the highly successful sports betting specialist would choose to end his life, but foul play seems to have been ruled out as medical examiner are not conducting a full investigation and, as Tidewater District medical examiner Oman explained:
“There were no autopsies. There were no toxologicial tests. The bodies won’t be embalmed, just cremated.”
Ken Weitzner (54), turned from psychiatry to professional sports betting before founding Internet sports gaming site “The Prescription” in 1997. After selling the site in 2002, he started a new site called “Eye On Gambling,” (www.eog.com) in 2005 where he continued his role as “industry watchdog” and facilitator.
Although well respected in the industry, Kenneth Weitzner was known as a difficult man to get along with at times, with ex-employee and Gambling911 Founder Chris Costigan saying:
“Our working relationship was volatile to say the least. Ken was a compulsive gambler who bet with his own advertisers while calling himself a ‘watchdog’. On more than one occasion Ken would refuse to report on sportsbooks that he knew were having financial difficulty until he could get all his own money out.”
Referring to Weitzner’s wife, Costigan continued; “It seemed she started keeping a more watchful eye on Ken and his business after learning of one of his affairs and would not allow him to travel alone.”
The couple’s death is being attributed to a combination of “sleeping pills” and “carbon monoxide,” and as rumours abound on forums as to the reason behind the double suicide, one member was claiming Weitzner might have owed large sums of money.
Weitzner once said,”My wife, Jackie, is the best. I don’t deserve her. I’ve put her through a lot. She’s the greatest woman in the world.” The couple now leave behind their children (Weitzner’s step children) as well as five grandchildren. The sports betting industry, in the meantime, mourns the loss of one of its major pioneers.