Whether good or bad, individuals associated with the world of online gambling have met some of the most brutal of deaths. And this is not to say that all such slayings were directly related to the industry. One of the most disturbing murders, that of Adam Anhang, had absolutely nothing to do with Internet gambling, yet his death resonated throughout the community and has remained difficult to talk about even three years later.
The former CFO of Dr. Ho and CEO of CWC Gaming, Adam Anhang, was brutally stabbed to death September 23, 2005 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His calculated slaying was like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock film. The murder occurred at a street intersection of Calle de la Luna in Historic Old San Juan, which is typically bustling with tourists and locals (even at the time of this murder took place). The frail man was stabbed nearly a dozen time over his entire body while walking alongside his estranged wife.
A Dateline NBC report profiled Jonathan Roman Rivera, 22, the accused murderer who was found guilty in a San Juan courthouse. But in a shocking twist, US law enforcement agents determined that Rivera was not the murderer. He just looked like him...and as it turns out, that may have been the plan all along. Aurea Vazquez, Anhangs's wife, had hired someone to mercilessly "off" her husband.
Anhang was one of the good guys, a pioneering force in the online sector of the gaming industry and he had benefited legitimately from it. Some have not capitalized as legitimately as Adam Anhang however. In recent days, there have been reports on an especially cold blooded murder that has connections to the darker side of online gambling. A billion dollar industry does attract a rather high percentage of scammers and it appears that Yang Zhen Xing fell right into this trap. Investigators are still trying to determine why Yang Zhen Xing and his girlfriend were found brutally murdered in their Newcastle West End flat in what was described as a "frenzied knife attack", quite possibly related to a gambling scam. At least one of the victims had been tortured for more than an hour.
But all implications are that the couple was involved in an online gambling scam with connections to betting syndicates in China. One line of inquiry involves claims Mr Zhen recruited spectators online to send live updates from UK football matches, according to a BBC report. It is claimed syndicates in China, where matches are televised a minute behind, could take advantage of this. Det Supt Wade stated: "Our officers have the support of forces across the country in their efforts to bring the killer or killers of Xi Zhou and Zhen Xing Yang to justice. Detective Wade said that investigators were sifting through phone records to determine a time of the murder and who the couple may have contacted prior to their bloody murder.
It was just last year that an online gambling employee in Costa Rica was murdered for reportedly stealing a customer list and scamming the customers whose contact information was part of the said list. Two Canadians and a Costa Rican were charged in the murder of Luis Muñoz Vargas. Agents allege that two Canadians along with the Costa Rican bodyguard set up a meeting with the victim a year ago on the pretext of purchasing a car. When Vargas arrived for the meeting in Desamparados centro, he was greeted with bullets and died later in hospital.
Like the Zhen Xing Yang slaying, the murders of Ernie Scherer and his wife Charlene Abendroth remain unsolved a number of months after their bodies were found. Both had received numerous stab wounds. Ernie was popular on the poker circuit and his death sent shockwaves throughout the poker playing community.
Whatever the case, my opinion is that, like in any shady business, violence and death will always be one step behind the scams.
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