It is either you are a high staker in the gambling or the $1,000 lost is as little not to be compared to your income rate that is why you are not moved by when this guy couldn't stand the fact that he lost $1,000 in the gamble. Well maybe I should recall to you that as financial levels differs so also we know the little and big amounts of funds we could be found as treasures which centrally depends on our incomes rate.
This is a local gambling in question and we are talking about a fund in a hard currency of $1,000 that is equivalent to #1,690,000 to his traditional currency. I guess you see a million plus is involved here. Haha.
This just to let you know how valuable the lost fund is and how such amount could attain a lucrative level of businesses within his locality considering that it was also a borrowed fund for a business purpose just as you are aware.
So if this guy could afford the money he wouldn't go borrowing it. That was the resultant of his emotions being unable to withstand the lost. So let's not look at how little or how big the lost fund was.
You shouldn’t indicate the exact amount to avoid focusing the discussion on the amount since we have different cost of living and the majority of country even on 3rd world country requires 1000$ to start a lucrative business.
But I agree that the focus of this topic should be on decision making which a friend of your done because this is indeed one of a clear sign of gambling addiction because he clearly use money that he can’t afford to lose. Maybe you should remove the exact amount on the OP because it will surely create confusion and doubt if you attached it to “lucrative” business.