You are right but such a situation will destroy his life and his friends slowly. I'm guessing your friend isn't married because you haven't told him about his family at all. But I can say that over time he will become more and more broken and it will impact his relationships with his close relatives and people around him.

I'm worried that he has started trying to get into debt to gamble. You may not mention it here because he hasn't done that but one of the bad effects of gambling addiction is that you will become addicted to debt. What would you do if he tried to owe you money?