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The story sucks to be honest. First of all because of the percentage you mention, but is there that much difference between $5,000 and $27,000? If he had said that $5,000 got him $500,000, it would seem to me to be a considerable difference.
And besides, it was the only way he could get that $22,000 difference? I don't know, maybe taking a loan to invest in his company would have made more sense.
I think when you keep gambling using borrowed money it's like committing suicide because there is no guarantee you can get a profit from gambling, it's better if you still need money to gamble, then you work and look for money and as much money as possible you use it for gambling. Gambling is not based on debt or the like because when you lose you will lose and be depressed.
Many people try to risk themselves because of the possibility that it can double their money easily but of course not all the time gambling gives a good profit to all player it is all about the guts and risk of the player if they have higher risk of course higher risk rewards of it but if not it might get too much losses that's why always gambling base on what you can afford to lose and control yourself.