LAS VEGAS — The NBA made headlines all over the internet with its aggressive crackdown on certain types of proposition wagers Friday.

It was … something.

Will Friday’s agreement announced between the league and its partner sportsbooks end fixing scandals or stem the public’s perception of them?

Of course not.

But the principals at least can come out with their tough-sounding statements about how this is proof they are exploring all avenues to ensure a level playing field for consumers.

According to a memo obtained by ESPN, the league exercised its rights under agreements with multiple gaming partners to restrict the types of wagers offered on the menu.

Those partners make up the overwhelming majority of licensed sportsbooks in the United States, and the new guidelines include a directive to no longer allow parlays on the same player’s stats landing under the total in the same game.

It’s a logical response to the real but also rare instances of market manipulation in which players worked with bettors to parlay several unders and then exit games early before reaching those totals.

That can’t happen. And it must be addressed. But this doesn’t solve anything. Those who want to cheat will cheat.

They will just have to look harder for the next scam.

Again, it’s something.

Getting over under

The directive also intends to eliminate bets on things like who wins the opening tip and whether specific shots are missed. There will also be increased awareness programs and additional investment in an AI-assisted monitoring system.

Fine. It’s unclear how much that solves, but it looks good in a headline.

One additional guideline calls for not allowing any under bets on players projected to play less than 12 minutes in a particular game.

But you still can bet those players to go over. Just wait until you see how inflated those prices are when books are taking overs but not unders.

Will Player A, who averages four minutes per game and has taken six shots all year, score over 22.5 points tonight?

Yes, minus-600.

Can I bet the under on that? No.

Awesome.

Seems fair.

This is not meant as a shot at the NBA. It is trying to do the right thing. This just isn’t its field.

Which brings us to the bigger point: The NBA, like other major sports organizations, should not be in this business.

The league saw all the money being made in sports betting and wanted a piece, as if it wasn’t making enough money already.

Stay in their lane

But it was a marriage that never should have happened. Create the product and do your best to keep it fair, perhaps even help monitoring efforts by funding some integrity companies. Let sportsbooks run the gambling side as they always have done here in Nevada. You don’t need a piece of everything.

The perception is awful.

Now that the leagues profit from gambling, so many of these decisions can be viewed through a lens that never existed in the past.

Even with this latest decision, a quote provided by league executive Scott Kaufman-Ross said a lot between the lines.

“There’s a balance between ensuring that we are removing problematic bet types but also ensuring that we don’t just move activity into the illegal market,” Kaufman-Ross told ESPN. “And where we landed right now, we think, is the right balance of those two objectives.”

Oh, you mean you don’t want more recreational bettors moving to prediction markets where you don’t get a cut and if you make too many restrictions that would be helpful, that’s where money would flow?

Prediction markets shouldn’t be legal. But that’s for another day.

The fact we are only taking half-measures is one more example of why the businesses should be separate.

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