You're right, this is purely speculation. But it's kind of hard to believe that the original owner who put years into this site would just let it die like this.
I'm more inclined to believe he sold it for a profit and retired. But again, all of this is just speculation.
FBC BV is the company that owns FreeBitco.in. It was created when wetsuit and TheQuin were still with the site. There was news articles that came out recently about FBC B.V. being fined in the Netherlands and those articles indicate that they are still the owners of FreeBitco.in.
https://igamingbusiness.com/legal-compliance/fbc-dutch-penalty-bitcoin-gambling-website/We have also seen recent BTC withdrawals coming from addresses that were used by FreeBitco.in when wetsuit was in charge. They are also still using the same wallet for FUN withdrawals since 2021. Just because they are no longer reliable doesn't mean they have changed owners. The evidence does not support that theory.