I know the term 'casting lots,' 'drawing straws', is associated with the Holy books which spoke about it when the occupants of the ship Jonah was traveling in, drew straws to know who was the cause of the turbulence was, Jonah was thrown overboard after the results and the sea became calm.
Lots, was also cast during the crucifixion of Jesus, while the soldiers were sharing his possessions among themselves.
If we have known lots to be some sort of sacred activity that could act as a guide to help make some decisions after the outcome, can we not then classify or tag casting lots and drawing straws, as a kind of gambling activity?
Even though there are some connections between those activities and gambling, it is true those were rather seen as ways to seek for divine intervention, instead of a form to explicitly make money out of other people who could lose their wager.
It depends whom you ask tho, to me there is some connections between drawing straws/lots and gambling, because in the end, the outcome of those activities depended on randomness and the unpredictability of the entropy going on with the action.
Also,.I think gambling is associated with him aity way before Judaism and Christianity were widely established in the middle east. There is evidence barbarian tribes in the north of Europe already practiced gambling-like activities guided by druids and other religious authorities.