While Gilroy admits that the situation is unusual, she says that the fact that the sweepstakes was both free and legal differentiated it from the gambling operations she has opposed in the past.<\/p>\n
According to Gilroy, she signed up for the caf\u00e9\u2019s emails, which is where she heard about the free sweepstakes. That led to her visiting the venue to collect free scratch-off cards, which eventually led to her becoming a finalist in a drawing for a new Ford Mustang convertible. After winning the live drawing on December 16 in Rosemont, she opted to take $25,000 in cash rather than the car.<\/p>\n
Gilroy says that she felt guilty about taking money that may have come from the losses of gamblers, but decided that the money was coming out of Laredo\u2019s profits. She also consulted a pastor, who told her she should keep the cash.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said \u2018Don\u2019t feel guilty. You just got paid for all your volunteer work against gambling,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s God showing his grace on me.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nStill, there are aspects of her victory that could be problematic given her anti-gambling stance. For instance, winning the prize required signing an agreement that Laredo could use Gilroy\u2019s photo for promotional purposes. That said, given her track record as a public face against the gaming industry, the company may not want to include her in their next ad campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When anti-gambling activist Kathy Gilroy won $25,000 by playing a sweepstakes at a gambling caf\u00e9 in Illinois, she saw it as a fortunate windfall, if one that was a bit ironic. But some in Illinois instead saw a case of hypocrisy from someone who had long worked to prevent the spread of gambling throughout the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":66338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Anti-Gambling Advocate Wins $25,000 in Illinois Sweepstakes<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n