No. It is a separate framework built around a gift to the U.S. government and a processing fee, not an at-risk investment in a business. It has no job-creation requirement and the payment is not recoverable.
Different instrument, different consequences
Hypothetical example: a retired engineer in Grand Bay-Westfield is told the Gold Card is the same idea as EB-5 with less paperwork. The comparison misleads on the point that matters most, which is what happens to the money. An EB-5 investor holds an interest in a commercial enterprise, bears the risk of its failure, must show ten qualifying jobs, and may recover capital if the venture succeeds.
Under the officially described Gold Card framework the payment is a gift to the U.S. government together with a processing fee, so there is no enterprise, no equity, no job requirement and nothing to recover. Neither route is simply better than the other; they impose different obligations and different risks.
The right way to compare them is side by side against the family's own facts, using the official material for each rather than a summary from someone who has not read either.