There are some good projects in altcoins that are worth taking the risks. Some of them are Ethereum, ICONOMI, Singular DTV, etc. Others like XMR, Dogecoin, DASH are more like a gamble to me. I know many will not agree with me, but I see investing into all those coins which seeks to replace bitcoin has a gamble.
I do agree with you coz i see this alts have good potential and been used by some gambling sites already which they put an option to use altcoin on a particular bet on a kind of game on their site which really indicates that these coins are good enough not a replacement to bitcoin but a good alternative.