Most of those freemium games do with real money isn't really gambling; you always get something out of it (progress in the game) even if it's ridiculously arbitrary and artificial.
With that said, I'm fully in support of there being some legal restrictions.
On the other hand, free2play MMORPGs are a pretty clear-cut instance of gambling - At least under my and any sane definition there of.
These games typically sell you things to improve your chances of upgrading your gear (I'll be generous, from 5% to 10%), and have very nasty effects if you fail (sometimes the kit loses a few ranks, in others in gets destroyed) so they also sell you items to prevent that from happening, typically in batches with limited uses.
What those items typically don't do is prevent the really rare shards/dice/whathaveyou items from being consumed in the process.
Additionally, some of the games lets you officially use real money to buy in-game currency, which you can then use to buy those really rare items.
So in effect, you can spend hundreds of dollars on all these items, and it might not net you a single thing.