At his regained to a normal state of health, he explained that he thought he would be lucky to win at the stake so as he could expand his intended business with a bigger capital.
At a point I don't see any business oriented ideal in this Friend because $1,000 ls good enough for a start of lucrative businesses.
I'm really skeptical if 1000$ can really give you a lucrative business in my country but maybe in your country since that amount is only the price of the business location with very rental small place but resorting to gambling using the funds that is intended for important matters is always a big red flag because you are risking the money that you can't afford to lose.
I thought the amount involved here is around 10K or more since it sounds like very serious while reading the introduction of the story including the colluding just to hide gambling. But I will do the same of hiding my gambling activity to others if someone knew enter to my place though even though I'm just playing for fun because it's not cool being known as a gambler in my country. Your friend is still lucky to still involve not that significant amount of money on gambling because he can easily repaid it through jobs.
In some countries a thousand bucks could set you up with a small business, primarily in the micro-food industry. In the Philippines, you could get your own Siu Mai stall for cheaper than that, I wouldn't be surprised if some other third-world country out there could make bigger use of the 1000 bucks that they are talking about. Besides, OP's friend's is more likely a micro-entrepreneur. So thousand dollars to start up a business, not really that unbelievable.
What concerns me more than the capital they made up with is the fact that they are looking for it in one of the worst places you could look for money which is casinos. You're better off saving your money instead of wishing it would yield more in a short span of time, cause if you're looking for instant gratification all you're going to get is a zero balance at the end of the day and a diminished desire to keep up with the business you're trying to create and a greater desire to earn money the easy way, which would then snowball into something even more problematic, until you find yourself addicted to gambling without you even knowing it.
Sucks total balls to be OP's friend but this is a crucial part of his journey that needs further help and assistance in my opinion. If he is able to assist his friend in getting out of this sticky situation, he may not only salvage the business dream, he may also save his friend from ruining his own life for good.