The Baltimore Ravens organization claims they never had access to a shocking video that emerged Monday showing running back Ray Rice brutally knocking his then fiancé unconscious in an Atlantic City casino elevator.

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh re-iterated that the Ravens had only viewed the surveillance video Monday morning after TMZ.com released it on their website.

“It was not made available to us,” Harbaugh said during a Monday evening news conference. “I don’t know why.”

The incident occurred last February at the Revel Casino, resulting in a two-game suspension by the National Football League.

Janay Palmer has since married Rice, a move widely seen as a way to prevent her from testifying against him. A wife cannot testify against her husband in the US court system with some states applying the law to both criminal and civil cases.

The Revel Casino closed its doors last week, prompting Gambling911.com’s own Thomas Somach to question the timing of the release.

"Everyone is wondering why the Ray Rice attack video gets released today,” Somach said. “No one has reported this, but it could be because the Revel Casino is now closed so they have nothing to lose or worry about (in releasing the video)."

Somach brings up another recent “elevator” beating incident.

“The elevator video that showed Beyonce's sister kicking Jay Z was bought by TMZ.com for $200,000 and then the guy who sold it was fired,” Somach notes. “Perhaps the same thing happened at Revel but no one wanted to be fired, but now that the casino has shut down they were free to sell the video.”

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com