If you really think about it, you can find a remarkable number of life's situations that can be inherently risky. Nearly everything someone does is some form of gambling. Even with such mundane act of getting up and going to work, increases one's prospects of being killed in a transportation accident. In face of today and everything you know about investing, whether it be in business, an asset class (stocks, bonds, real-estate, cash and commodities), or index fund, even in its most basic element, it 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 official lottery that's 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.