If you really think about it, you will find an amazing number of life's situations that can be inherently risky. Nearly everything someone does is some type of gambling. Even with such mundane act of getting up and going to work, increases one's chances of being killed in a transportation accident. In face of today and everything you know about investing, lottery be it in business, an asset class (stocks, bonds, real-estate, cash and commodities), or index fund, even in its most basic element, it really is nothing but "betting" that someday tomorrow is going to be better with pleasant expected returns on investment; or maybe not. There is only one big risk you should avoid and that is the risk of doing nothing and not taking your chance.

Come to look-at it in face value, investing in any money market really is, legalized gambling, per se.