you need a andriod phone to create gmails without a phone number. you can make about 5-10 accounts per device before it requires you to use a phone number. :)
i haven't used phone on my gmail and it's fine. unless they changed it for sign-up and you can no longer make one without autistic phone.
as far as i'm aware, it only requires "phone device" but not actual phone number.
use some emulator like bluestacks or memu and use that to verify, it should work.