This chapter suggests important questions useful in the process of developing or refining institutional or departmental gambling policies. Ethical, political, and social considerations are discussed and then briefly synthesized into three potential policy applications. 73 7 Ethical and Practical Considerations for Developing Institutional Gambling Policy Jason A. Laker For better or worse, gambling has been a form of leisure and enterprise throughout human history. Thus, its presence in the lives of college stu- dents is not a new phenomenon (see the discussion by McClellan and Winters in Chapter One). However, institutions of higher education have yet to show a coherent or effective response to this issue, placing individ- ual students and organizations at risk. This chapter extends general guidance toward development, refinement, and enforcement of institutional or departmental gambling policies. Although it is intended to offer practical advice and conceptual frameworks for policy formation, the reader is advised that gambling, like many other societal issues, is much more complex than it appears at first blush. Thus the chap- ter begins with a number of questions that can stimulate useful discussion, debate, and ideally movement toward consensus among stakeholders engaged in development of a gambling policy at the institutional or departmental level. The chapter then focuses on ethical, philosophical, and practical considera- tions in framing campus discussion and making decisions about gambling policy. Finally, three possible institutional frameworks are explored in light of the questions and considerations that have been identified. NEW DIRECTIONS FOR STUDENT SERVICES, no. 113, Spring 2006 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) • DOI: 10.1002/ss.197