So am just curious to know if these little games are the one's that got to him or already developed such habit and to know if possible that the practice will continue elsewhere after leaving there when he lost the money and to look for means through gambling to recover it.
It's possible especially if in friendly games he discovered a method on how to win in a card game and wanted to apply it to real games in casinos, there's a big difference between playing in friendly games and playing casinos, you can't bet huge money on friendly games and friendly games are held in a short period.
Because it is a friendly game and your friends don't want to take it seriously, there's a lack of challenge compared to playing on casinos, in short, you want the real thing.