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Gambling is a high-stakes game. People don’t always gamble with money they can afford to lose. And all too often, they lose it.
One woman is going viral for describing bearing witness to this very phenomenon and subsequently being asked to save someone from their own mistakes.
‘You better call that … husband of yours’
Los Angeles content creator Lauryn Brame (@laaurynbee) posted a storytime after a fellow casino player gambled away more than she could afford. The storytime video has since accumulated more than 270,000 views.
Brame had been playing in a Las Vegas casino when a nearby woman confided to her that she’d “lost [her] rent money” and was dreading breaking the news to her husband. Brame expressed distaste for the whole thing, calling it a “gambling addiction.”
But then, that same woman approached Brame in the parking lot as she was getting into her car.
“She was like … ‘Would you be able to give me any money for gas so I can get back home?’” Brame said. “What?!”
Brame explained to the woman that she wasn’t a Las Vegas local, and instead was about to undergo “a four or five hour drive.” She also said she, too, had “lost everything” gambling and thus couldn’t help her.
How did the woman respond?
As it turned out, the woman had been watching her. She knew Brame had some money left.
“She’s like, ‘Well no, I saw you had a couple hundred when you left,’” Brame said, visibly aghast. “What?! [Expletive], don’t be watching my [expletive] pockets … You said what?!”
The woman then doubled down, saying she watched Brame “when [she] walked to go cash out.”
“She was like … ‘I just need like $20, $30,’” Brame said. “I’m like, ‘Look. You better call that [expletive] husband of yours and ask him to send you some [expletive] gas money’ … You got me [expletive] up.”
In her caption, Brame wrote that the woman “[done] lost her mind,” and she added overlay text to her video proclaiming that she’s “never coming back to Vegas again.”
How bad can gambling addiction be in the United States?
According to the Rutgers Addiction Research Center (RARC), “the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) estimates that approximately 5 million Americans meet the criteria for compulsive gambling.”
“Gambling addiction is a significant public health concern characterized by … loss of control manifested by continuation of the gambling behavior in spite of mounting, serious, negative consequences,” RARC writes. “A person with a gambling disorder may … exhaust their savings or financial resources to fund their gambling activities, leading to financial instability. Additionally, their relationships, particularly with their spouse and family, can suffer as a result of the preoccupation with gambling.”
Furthermore, a 2025 report from the NCPG found that “nearly 20 million U.S. adults report problem gambling behaviors,” which is not the same as a gambling addiction but still contributes massively to an overall “gambling health crisis.”
The advent of online gambling has made the pastime more accessible than ever, thus making it even easier to become a gambling addict. A 2025 article published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reported that “as online betting surges, so does risk of addiction.” And gambling addictions can be deadly.
“Gambling disorder falls in the same diagnostic category as drug and alcohol use disorders,” the article reads. “One in five people with a gambling disorder attempt or complete suicide, an even higher risk than with other substance use disorders.”
Buzz News reached out to Brame via email.
