I've been gambling for years, witnessing that I've lost everything a lot of times, I know that trade does not always compensate for small losses.
Why not trade can compensate what makes you say that the next best alternative after gambling is trading over here you need brains luck won't work at all. In gambling luck also doesn't work always but trading if you have good sources and good brains you can easily make good profit
yeah it's makes sense if you expecting to make money through trading rather than through gambling it's a reasonable one indeed. besides trading gives you less risk with a little bigger rewards you can learn it by take a look to those people who successful enough invest their value by trading , pretty different for those people who successful through gambling it's work temporarily only, in the end mostly just get back to zero due the -EV .
I also cast my vote for trading. It is a respectful, admired and working way to get rich. It has risk but anyone with good analyzing skills and curious nature can overcome it. It does not depend upon one's luck rather hard work and patience are the only two factors that decide success in trading. Gambling is luck which may hit you at least once in a life but people get the wrong idea when they win.