Hey, Undertoad...I think I'm confused.
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The analogy only gets weirder when you consider that your payoff happens in this world, the world you know, while most religious folk expect the payoff in the next one.
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If you were referring to the faith that I'm describing, "payoff" does indeed happen for the most part in the afterlife. It's pretty obvious that I don't have visible, tangible "proof" for my faith in this life. And if there is no resurrection (i.e., if Jesus lived and died and rose for no reason and it won't work for me too), then the sacrifices (i.e., sacrifices-slash-investments, depending on how you look at them) I am making in this life are futile. As Paul says, if there is no hope of the resurrection, then my religion is in vain--I am of all people most miserable. Not only would I be giving up all kinds of worldly pleasures unnecessarily, but I would be gypped out of any kind of eternal happiness either.
The book of Matthew says that
the kingdom of heaven
is like a treasure hid in a field
which, when a man finds, he hides it
and goes and sells everything he has
for joy
just to buy that field.
The point of that biblical simile is that true Christians believe that "he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." In choosing to follow Jesus, I choose to follow God's commandments and live for a future life--not primarily for enjoyment in this life. If the Christianity of the Bible is false, then I am of all people most miserable.
Contrary to many tangential ideas that are circulating around Christendom today, Jesus does not promise prosperity and wealth. He does not promise a risk-free, persecution-free, trouble-free, sickness-free, poverty-free life. He does not promise comforts.
He promises a cross. And He promises major benefits on the other side of that cross.