And a Heloc would help with this, because they know you can draw the equity out of your home and go on a expensive vacation, or gamble it away or whatever.

Gambling on a market is dangerous I think, but that's what gambling is all about.  

A lot of people argue that Hawaii of all places will be paradise and prices should always go up but I consider that gambling.

I vote lock. this market is just so volatile, and personally I don't like to gamble with my client's success. 

Stocks are a pure gamble 

Counting on appreciation in the vast majority of the country is just gambling and unwise.  

This is not investing, it's gambling.

Some people making mistakes will get bailed out by dumb luck with appreciation but that is gambling and not investing. 

I figured that I could afford to gamble about 30K and that it was a gamble...what I didn't figure was that it would end up costing ALOT more by the time the dust settled.

The concept is somewhat similar to the Kelly criterion from probability theory, which defines the % of your total bankroll you should be investing/gambling in a given proposition to optimize your profit and minimize your risk of ruin.