We have an amazing patchwork of gambling laws in this country from state to state, made only more complicated by the potential for online gaming.

Pennsylvania needs to be at the forefront of making its laws on gambling clear and then benefiting in any way possible from its popularity.

The newest nationwide craze is weekly fantasy football leagues. If you’ve watched just about any sporting event, you are bombarded with ads for DraftKings and FanDuel.

This takes the yearlong NFL fantasy leagues to the next level by condensing it down to a week at a time. There are no commitments to week after week of keeping up with your team of players. And the money is big. If you believe the commercials, these games are making people millionaires.

The kicker is, this isn’t considered gambling. There is skill involved in picking these football players, so it is legal in almost every state to win money by playing. (The DraftKings website, for example, says that “Legal residents physically located in any of the 50 states and Washington DC, excluding Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, and Washington are eligible to open an account and participate in contests offered by the Website.”) Yahoo is also planning to host daily and weekly fantasy leagues.

Not only do pro leagues condone these “games of skill.” They are in bed with them. The New York Times reported that the NBA owns a piece of FanDuel, as does NBC Sports, and Major League Baseball has a stake in DraftKings.

We could go off on the hypocrisy of some leagues, like the NFL, who benefit from the leagues’ popularity, but won’t allow its players to attend events at casinos. Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo found that out when he tried to attend a National Fantasy Football Convention scheduled in Las Vegas in July, according to ESPN. The NFL reminded him through the NFL Players Association that he can’t do that because “players and NFL personnel may not participate in promotional activities or other appearances in connection with events that are held at or sponsored by casinos.” Romo pointed out a sponsorship agreement between the MGM Grand Detroit and the Detroit Lions for a field-level club area at Ford Field. It was clear that the NFL just wants to control its players and its profits. There was no harm if Romo had attended the event. It’s just that the league wouldn’t’ have benefitted financially.

We’ve come a long way from decades ago, we had baseball geeks playing in rotisserie leagues because they loved it. Now we have multimillion dollar enterprises.

When money is being made, the government is sure to follow. And in this case, we are all for it.

Rep. George Dunbar, R-Westmoreland County, has put forth legislation so that casinos can run fantasy sports leagues if they so desire. He said they are not banned from doing so now, but his legislation would make it “codified.” He pointed to The Rivers Casino, which is near Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and said such fantasy football events could help it draw in people on game days.

We have previously said that Pennsylvania legislators should pass an online gaming bill, both because the state needs the money to close the budget gap and, simply, because it can.

We are past the times when “gaming” (the new-and-improved term to try to take away the stigma of gambling) was done with dice in back alleys. State lotteries are government-backed gaming. Casinos are legal. We can bet the ponies if we want. We have passed the discussion about the morality of whether it should be codified. It is.

So if casinos can benefit from being nudged toward daily or weekly fantasy sports leagues, and more revenue and then tax dollars returned to Pennsylvanians, so be it.