It's actually better if he's dead, it ends everything. But if he ends up as a fool, that would really burden the family for a lifetime!
Even if one takes a step back and he recovers, if he lacks any skills and has taken up "gambling", how is that different from being a curse?
She may not be educated, but she knows how harmful someone can be once caught up in gambling... Just like her father, who was a decent person initially, but once he got pulled into a gambling den, he slowly fell into it, losing the family's modest savings to the point where even mice wouldn't visit their home, and even ended up losing their house to creditors.
