with exchanges going down - trading is same as gambling imo - or even worse 
Comparing the risk of gambling with exchange down is not reasonable, if you are afraid your funds in exchange will be lost because the website is down then you simply put back your trading funds in your personal wallet and send back to the exchange if you are start to trading. Gambling is not only high risk but also often gives bad effects to the mental especially if you can not manage the emotions themselves, But whatever choice there is gambling or trading I really respect it.
I agree, because a gambling site can disappear with all your money too, so gambling and trading are the same in that regard.
But I also agree with forzendiablo because even if we exclude from consideration situations with exchanges going down we'll see that trading has many risks people are not aware of before starting.