You just can’t make this kind of stuff up. A suburban Chicago woman who has crusaded against gambling for decades, has won 25 grand ($25,000) by playing a sweepstakes game at a gambling cafe.

 

 

 

The Associated Press (@AP_oddities) reports, 68-year old Kathy Gilroy told the Chicago Tribune that while it’s ironic she won the sweepstakes, the difference between what happened to her, and what she fights against, is that she didn’t spend her own money to gamble.

 

 

 

Gilroy has said gambling can lead to addiction, bankruptcy, crime, and suicide. She helped shut down a $1.6 million Queen Of hearts raffle put on by the Veterans Foreign Wars post in rural Morris, Illinois, this year until the raffle was properly licensed.

 

 

 

Gilroy says she’s participated in other sweepstakes and won prizes, including electronics and trips to the Bahamas and California. She says she enter sweepstakes because they’re free of charge.

 

 

 

Gilroy said she had the choice of a car or the money. She said she has already invested some of the money in stocks………..which, in its own way, is another form of gambling.

 

 

 

“It’s the gambling I oppose, not the sweepstakes.” Gilroy said.