The long time it takes for Columbo to appear is a trademark of many 90s shows because it shows how the writers were not capable of coming up with many "little" clues to let Columbo unravel a case slowly that as a consequence we had to get increasingly more and more "backstory" time leading up to a killing where that problem of how does Columbo unravel things is less daunting.
While the payoff clue is better than other 90s Columbo tales the whole community property issue again is a great point, not to mention the fact that if Torn becomes the "winner" then his wife that he's cheating on is going to be entitled to half of it when Torn eventually dumps her. They should have established him as not married (like Jarvis Goodland in "Greenhouse Jungle")
I agree the writers should have have Leon be single. His wife never said anything about the winnings. Now he's got to split his winnings at least three ways, and there was a son too. For being "broke", he sure lived a pretty lavish lifestyle, in a Beverly Hills mansion, driving a Rolls.