COEUR d'ALENE - Betty Lee Hove, 88, and her family are paying a horrible price for her investment adviser's gambling habit.

Hove, a Coeur d'Alene resident, said her investment adviser, JoAnn Jackson, took every bit of her sense of security and comfort - and more than $800,000 - and shoved it into slot machines.

Jackson, who became a licensed stockbroker in Idaho in 1994, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months in federal prison for the theft of Hove's life savings. That was the maximum allowable prison term.

"I am the main victim in the case against JoAnn Jackson, who I considered to be a valuable financial representative but more than that, a dear and trusted friend," according to a letter read in court by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Cook to U.S. District Court Judge Edward J. Lodge.

Hove's letter said Jackson, 63, was a "dear and trusted friend" while she stole the money from the widow, whose husband died in 2009.

"I cannot seem to put into words how this whole thing has affected me and my family, down to my great-grandchildren's future," Hove wrote. "I know she will never pay me back in my lifetime, or hers."

"My parents planned and saved for their eventual retirement for nearly 60 years," Kathy Pierce, Hove's daughter, told Lodge. "Jackson took their friendship, their trust and their retirement in four short years."

Pierce added that just while her father was dying, Jackson helped herself to $95,000.

"All during those dark days, Jackson was still meeting my mom and I for lunch and stopping by her house for coffee," she said. "Jackson resides just three blocks from my mother and we now know she was grooming my family to steal from my mother to support her own lifestyle."

Jackson was a regular at the Coeur d'Alene Casino, and was there almost daily until her indictment in August.

Cook asked Lodge to choose the maximum of 30 months.

"The defendant was in a position of trust and abused that trust," Cook said. "It needs to be more than a slap on the wrist."

Jackson pleaded guilty in November to two counts of wire fraud in the case, which was investigated by the FBI.

Lodge opted for the maximum prison term, and also ordered her to pay restitution of $811,000 and serve three years of supervised release. She also must complete 200 hours of community service.

She was immediately taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service.

Lodge said anything less than the maximum in this case, which involved "horrendous crimes," would be an injustice.

He said Jackson must understand the prison term is necessary.

"It's the only way you can go back into the community with your head up," Lodge said.

The judge expressed frustration that the maximum penalty for stealing more than $800,000 was only two and a half years in prison, a small investment of time considering the money.

Jackson, crying, apologized to Hove and her family.

"Betty was a mother to me, Kathy a sister," Jackson told Lodge. "Words cannot describe how bad I've hurt Betty Hove and her family."

She said she had become a compulsive gambler, and engaged in the habit as an escape from reality.

"Going to the casino is like a powerful drug," Jackson said.

Her public defender, Andrea George, said it wasn't a crime of greed but one that stemmed from addiction. She said her client suffered abuse earlier in her life.

"She took everything that was good in her life and put it into a slot machine," George told the court. "She's going to prison and she's scared out of her mind."