Lost it chasing loss

I am 23M. It all started 3 months ago when I lost my 1000$ in horse racing. I don’t have any knowledge in it, but it is somehow really entertaining to watch. Then the next week came, Deposited my whole paycheck again just to win some and losing everything. And it keeps happening till now.

Every time my friends ask me to go out, I just lie and say “don’t feel like it”, or “I am sick”, cause literally I don’t have any money. Few days ago, I have just pawned my macbook and sold my drone because I am few weeks behind on rent bills, but as we all know, I deposited half of it to lose and deposit the other half to lose again. Tomorrow is my friend’s birthday, I am just planning on saying “I am sick”.

It just hurts. Over the course of 3 months I lost about 5-6k which I could have used it towards my university tuition. My parents think that I am saving up, so that for the next semester, I could cover most of my tuition.

Can’t imagine what my father will be like if he hears this and degenerated his son has become.
The thing about horse and greyhound racing is that it is always available. They are always racing. Wish I could go back in time and slapped the shit out of myself.
Even at work, I am the happiest person, but deep down, I know I am just putting on a happy face, so that my workmates wouldn’t notice and judge me for who I have become.

All my friends are doing something valuable with their life, while I am doing this. It really messed up confidence in myself in just 3 months.

Thank you for reading this. Any help would be appreciated. How do you even recover from this pain of losing all the money and bills piling up, knowing that you can’t get out of this shithole for the next few weeks, months even.