I think he was not completely able to beat his addiction as we saw that it lasted until he had an offer in his email to play for free a little amount as a gift from the casino website.If he was truly convinced to leave gambling once and for all he should have also unsubscribed from all the casinos and their marketing emails.When I see my email it is full of such offers (not free money) but marketing emails from the casinos I play the most at.If I want to quit gambling for good,I unsubscribe from all these marketing emails from the gambling companies.
I like your idea, it can help to quit gambling addiction to some extent but if someone is very addicted, he can unsubscribe from the emails and still he will still later find himself gambling.
I got someone that receive the emails and with free bets but yet not even using the money to bet again. I noticed some people only want to make money from gambling and see it as job, the person I am talking about got job and quite after being a gambling addict for like 3 or 4 years.
I still think there should be better but additional means that needs to be involved for an addict to stop gambling.
That aside, to scam family is completely awful and not making any sense. Besides, not even on something like business but on gambling. That is completely out of sense.