BURLINGTON, Vt. – A former state Department for Children and Families supervisor with a gambling addiction pleaded guilty Friday for her role in a $490,000 embezzlement scheme in which she got the state to issue more than 250 checks that she and her sister then cashed, keeping the proceeds.

Kathy Lantagne, 47, of Charleston, faces up to 30 years in prison but remains free until her June 30 sentencing. She pleaded guilty Friday to mail fraud, theft from a program that receives federal funds and filing a false tax return. Accompanied by her lawyer, Mark Kaplan, she declined to comment on her way out of court.

Her sister, Deborah Tuller, pleaded guilty previously and was sentenced to 13 months in prison.

Lantagne told U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss during the plea hearing that she is being treated for a gambling addiction..

A 20-year employee of the Department for Children and Families’ economic services division, which helps the indigent with rent payments and burial expenses, Lantagne resigned in 2009 after the scheme came to light.