Really? I prefer not to gamble, but given a choice between (a) & (b), I would choose (b) every time.
a. Odds against you, govt regulated.
b. Uncertain odds (dependent on choices made, changing over time, etc.), unregulated.
Under (a), you're guaranteed to lose eventually. Under (b), you could potentially become good at reading sentiment around the newest types of coins. It's certainly still gambling, though.
Compared to casinos, altcoin gambling is higher risk but also higher reward. If you'd put $50 into each new coin released since 2011, you'd have a lot of worthless coins... but your Ethereum would be worth nearly $12k. Litecoin and OMG alone would add another $1k.
I've participated in 5 ICOs. I don't recommend buying unless a) the company looks great (like filecoin or similar) and b) you get in at a substantial discount.
What I'm seeing now is even good companies that trade below ICO prices after they hit some of the exchanges. Example is https://www.saltlending.com/
Actually that is probably a better strategy: buying good companies that are down since their ICO.
We're still a few days away from launching, but if you follow @coinmercenary on Instagram (or twitter!), we will be posting a single ICO review each day.
The idea is to be your trusted source for ICO reviews. Using a 6 point scoring system, with one review each day, we'll cut through the noise with you.
If you really like gambling, go to a casino: the odds are stacked against you, but at least it's government regulated.