If you want high-risk with potential high-returns, and are looking for something better than the zero-sum game of betting, consider the penny stock market.
It can be a lot easier to research and estimate the potentials (for success or failure) of some little micro-cap company, than it is to predict broad macro economic trends.
A suggestion in the penny world: Symbol: PLKC. Company: PlanetLink Communications,
http://www.planettraks.com/
(Disclosure: I'm long PLKC.)
Joe