This is as good a place as any for my first post...
back in my early 20s, I really enjoyed gambling. At the time I was making, maybe $45-50k per year, had $500 a month in student loan payments and basically living paycheck to paycheck with a "safety net" of $1200 in my checking account. I went on a business trip to Reno, NV and ended up losing $1,000 of my $1,200 over the course of three days of blackjack, craps, roulette and (eventually) keno. The latter was played only because it required a small initial investment and it took longer (per dollar) to lose than the other games I'd been playing.
Fortunately, I started dating my now wife soon after that and she really righted the ship.