Hey, why mess around with religion, politics, the weather, and the populations of small animals (all of which are also excellent ways for the gods to influence the world) when you can just decide which numbers come up in the lottery? But anything that valuable must be a highly coveted commodity, so any given god doesn't control the lottery all the time. In this vein, it seems strange that Yahweh would forbid gambling. I think the likely explanation is that that was a non-inspired mistake in the Bible--an imperfection not put in by Yahweh at all.