Sorry, it doesn't look like anyone here is really going to agree with this idea.
If you put $500 a month into an S&P 500 fund for the last 25 years, do you have any idea how much money you'd have today?
Gambling, my left foot.
You realize there are people that "invested" heavily in market funds and are still working rather than retiring when they planned because of the amount of money they lost in 2008, right?
You know there's swathes of people who invested in their own company in the form of employee stock purchase plans who lost everything, right?
Investing IS gambling in the dictionary sense of the word. MOST OF THE TIME long term investing is a safe bet. But sometimes, it is not. That makes it a gamble.