Gas giants are the collections of the lighter elements in the proto disk of their star, which were blown out by the solar wind to the outer edges of the system, which is why you don't see many gas giants close to the sun.
Brown dwarfs, on the other hand, are bodies that are more massive than gas giants but less massive than stars, and they cannot produce nuclear fission because of their low mass.
Saying gas giants are unlucky stars is like saying lizards are unlucky crocodiles.