O’Neal offered an interesting solution for betting issues in the NBA.

With sports betting becoming legal across the United States, millions of fans have begun betting on their favorite players and teams nearly daily. One of the leagues impacted the most by this is the NBA, with folks flocking to bet on these games.

Unsurprisingly, this has resulted in an uptick in betting among players, with some even going as far as to bet on their own teams, which is obviously frowned upon. With so many players getting punished for betting, Shaquille O’Neal had an interesting suggestion for a potential punishment.

Shaq’s solution

During O’Neal’s Hall of Fame career in the NBA, sports betting wasn’t legalized anywhere other than Las Vegas, Nevada, so he didn’t really have to worry about getting sucked into that world. Unfortunately, it’s an issue players deal with constantly nowadays.

Some forms of gambling aren’t bad, but each league has its own set of sports betting rules, and violating them results in severe punishments.

As an alternative to some of these hefty bans, Shaq had a unique idea for what the NBA should do to folks who violate their betting policy.

“He would have to give his whole salary back, and you got 30 days,” O’Neal said on The Big Podcast. “You got 30 days to pay that 450 that you making. You got 450 to pay the league back, plus whatever the person made, 250 or that, you gotta pay me 650 in that 30 days. You don’t get that done, you’re banned from all leagues. NBA, Europe, you can’t ever play again. You can’t even go to Overtime Elite.”

Hit where it hurts

O’Neal is discussing this punishment in relation to the lifetime suspension Jontay Porter received for betting on his own team.

He used inside information on his injury status to give his bets a leg up, which is grounds for the lifetime ban he received.

It doesn’t seem Shaq disagrees with the decision but offers an alternative solution that would still hurt these players since they care so much about money.

Having them give up their entire salary could be a pretty big punishment, especially if it’s a big-name player.

Shaq also wants them to fork over any potential betting winnings they had so they would be back to square one when it comes to getting paid.

This is also a strict punishment, and while it’s a unique idea, contractual language in all of these players’ deals would likely prevent it from ever being used. Still, something needs to be done to combat this rampant sports betting, and this idea could help the NBA.