Lula Calls the Gambling Industry a 'Cancer' He Must 'Remove'
Lula is in a tight presidential race against Flávio Bolsonaro, and BBC World reports that he called the online gambling industry a cancer that he must remove. A disease metaphor does a different job than a tax rate: a licence regime argues over how an industry should operate, while a cancer argues over whether it should be there at all — and the person promising the excision gets to sound like a surgeon rather than a regulator. That may be the point of reaching for it in a close race, where a moral crusade costs less than a policy detail.
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You don't regulate a cancer, you cut it out. The word forecloses the usual debate about fees, advertising rules and harm reduction before it starts.
It may be less about the industry than about the calendar: a tight race against Flávio Bolsonaro gives a moral crusade a clear audience and an expiry date.