Bully for Gov. Mike DeWine and Major League Baseball for the (limited) restrictions they’re imposing on proposition betting – gambling on specific actions by a given athlete in big-time sports.

But what DeWine, a Cedarville Republican, and the baseball clubs want to do falls far, far short of what is needed.

Ohio must ban prop bets. Period. Because the big-money greed that prop bets attract, like metal filings to a magnet, is a sure-fire formula for (a) cheating and (b) regulatory hanky-panky in state capitals.

Already, according to Statehouse filings – even before the governor, with or without a complacent General Assembly, acts – the sports-betting industry fields almost 20 lobbyists on Capitol Square. That hints at the enormous profits they rake in and want to protect. (By comparison, the peak number of Statehouse lobbyists fielded by once-omnipotent, later scandal-engulfed FirstEnergy Corp. was 20.)

Prop-betting results depend to an enormous extent on the athletic performance of an individual player in a specific game or match. That also means potential temptation – and potentially big trouble – for the players.

Last weekend in Brooklyn, federal prosecutors unsealed indictments charging two Guardians players, Emmanuel Clase, 27, a relief pitcher, and Luis Ortiz, 26, a starting pitcher, with felonies “for their alleged roles in a scheme to rig bets on pitches thrown during Major League Baseball games.” (An indictment is an accusation, not proof of wrongdoing.)

Earlier, federal prosecutors had charged Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, once a Shaker Heights High School star, and others with wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy for their alleged roles in a scheme to use “inside information from National Basketball Association players and coaches to profit from illegal betting activity.”

On Monday, Major League Baseball, the baseball team owners’ lobby, said it had reached a deal with its sportsbook partners to “cap wagers on the so-called ‘micro-bet,’ pitch-level markets at $200 and exclude those bets from parlays.” Pitch-level bets refer to bets on individual pitches.

And DeWine, a leading critic of such “micro-betting,” praised the MLB moves, commending them for “affirmative steps to protect the integrity of the game and reduce the incentives to participate in improper betting schemes.”

Coincidentally, DeWine and his family own the South Atlantic League’s Asheville (North Carolina) Tourists baseball team, a Houston Astros affiliate.

DeWine’s praise for the big leagues’ edict capping “wagers on pitch-level markets at $200 and exclude those bets from parlays” was a notable climb-down from his original position, announced in late July, when he asked the Ohio Casino Control Commission to completely ban prop betting in Ohio.

It’s unclear why DeWine modified his original perspective, but the General Assembly, controlled by his fellow Republicans, has shown little interest in banning big-money prop betting. Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, said the issue requires study. “I don’t think I would introduce legislation [to ban prop bets], because I don’t know what that would say,” Huffman said.

And Rep. Brian Stewart, an influential Republican from Pickaway County’s Ashville, south of Columbus, said last summer he opposes banning prop betting because “it’s something that clearly a lot of Ohioans … enjoy, and I don’t think there’s something that we should eliminate entirely.” Ironically, voters in Huffman’s home county (Allen) and Stewart’s (Pickaway) voted “no” on the statewide ballot issue that created the Ohio Lottery in 1973, and the 2009 issue authorizing casino gambling in Ohio.

All told, it’s good that Major League Baseball is imposing some restrictions on prop betting; so is Mike DeWine’s support for what the leagues are aiming for.

But permitting any prop betting at all creates a hothouse for corruption — on playing fields and in politics. What’s called for is a complete ban. Now.

Ohio needs to ban prop bets altogether. Nibbling around the edges just isn’t enough.

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