From the way you've described it, this is not a surprise at all because they are simply a lender and companies that give loans very often will not supply it for gambling purposes. Which makes sense because they need to get paid interest on their loans but if the person who borrowed it loses everything immediately, then they are less likely to pay it back. It's a simple business decision, when you assume that someone is borrowing money to gamble, they likely have an addiction that has overtaken everything else in life. They might struggle to hold a job, be depressed and may even file for bankruptcy in order to get out of the hole they dug. None of these things make for a good lending decision.