Nowsaday, I don't think there is any ICO worth to invest anymore. I had so many bad ones lately. Better off purchase them after they released at the exchanges.
100% true,you are gambling your money away,there's no guaranty that the price is more higher than the ico price,like what happen to icobid and other similar ico coin,price is way to lower than the ico price,so it's better to just watch and f ollow the ico but buy when it enter the exchange...
How will the ICO list their coin if there is no one will gonna invest on them at the first place?
It is not bad to invest on ICO. Just make sure that the project has a trusted escrow for the fund so that you will have no problem no matter what happened at the end. The problem about ICO investor is they are easily to believe that the ICO is legit by means of hype post here on the forum. It is better to do own research before investing.