Musically, "Gambler" is an upbeat synth-pop and disco song, featuring instrumentation from drums, electronic handclaps and percussion, which is accompanied by a bass synth and keyboards.
Critics gave a mixed review of the song, but it was commercially successful, reaching the top-ten in the charts of Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom.
[2][3] However, only "Crazy for You" and "Gambler" made it onto the final track listing of the film's soundtrack album, with "Warning Signs" remaining commercially unreleased.
[5] The UK 12-inch single contains the extended dance mix, instrumental remix, and the song "Nature of the Beach" by Black 'n Blue.
[9] The song starts with an initial four-chord chorus, and a brief three-chord verse, eventually reaching a middle eight, where Madonna's voice is in echoes.
"[13] Alfred Soto of Stylus Magazine, described "Gambler" as a "disco-punk, Flashdance edition" and called it "the most aggressive track of Madonna's career."
It deserves immortality beside 'Into the Groove' [...] The music is keyed to her vocals—insistent, strident, hip-thrusting; she slurs the line 'You're just jealous 'cuz you can't be me' like it's a shot of Rumplemints; meanwhile Animotion synths blow up her skirt.
[15] R. Serge Denisoff and William D. Romanowski, authors of Risky business: rock in film, felt that the song seemed "jammed into the movie with a plunger and little thought to appropriateness.
[17] In March 2023, Billboard ranked it as the singer's 92nd greatest song; Andrew Unterberger called it "the unofficial end of the Like a Virgin era, her final jolt of gooey synth-pop before moving onto weightier fare with True Blue.
[18] Slant Magazine's Ed Gonzalez wrote: "['Gambler'] is what 'Dress You Up' would sound like after six vodka pineapples [...] To think what could have been had she brought a sneaking sense of vulnerability to what is, at heart, an emancipation proclamation, but it's an otherwise infectious marriage between Madonna's assertiveness and 'Jellybean' Benitez's all-pelvic-thrust production".
[19] Rolling Stone called it an "urgent-sounding dance track" whose "assertive feel jelled well with [Vision Quest's] theme, especially the story of its hard-to-get heroine (played by Linda Fiorentino)".
Madonna wore a black, fringed micro-top and similar skirt, with her belly-button exposed, and a number of crucifixes in different sizes, hanging from different parts of her body.