To be fair, the "big money" jobs aren't so much at Google, Facebook or Microsoft as they are at little hedge funds and prop trading shops. I haven't spent much time looking at the hiring thread this month, but I did see Two Sigma there, so there are some "big money" jobs on this "hipster forum" :).

I got a $350k/year salary offer from a High Frequency Trading company based in Chicago. They use C, C++ and FPGA. As far I know in 2-3 years you can go over 500k.

Not many developers get that much in the Valley...

HFT is gambling. There are probably more profitable positions in gambling e.g. in Russia :)

But he's got a salary...

I guess there are lots of people who get a regular salary from running casinos or producing gambling-machines, too.

I mean't that working in the casino isn't gambling.