What is jumping out at me is your lack of knowledge in what you are doing. It's very hard to pick individual stocks, so don't do it. When you do due diligence, what are you going to do? Remember, when you are buying, you will most likely be buying off a fund manager who has done a lot more due diligence that you and will sell it to you at a higher price.
Seeing as the tax tail is wagging the dog, invest in investment trusts and forget about them.
If you invest in quality companies, you are doing anything but gambling. You are investing your money and it will grow in the long term. Invest in bad companies, you will indeed be gambling and will most likely lose your money. Best of luck with it.
Yes, I most certainly have a lack of knowledge in the area! It's for that reason I don't intend to pick individual stocks. I am already paying an investment manager for that service. Like you said, I'm going to stick to investment trusts with this experiment and see how I go. Thanks for the input.