HELENA — People across Big Sky County got up early on Saturday to get their Montana Millionaire tickets. Although not a record breaker like past years, all 620,000 were sold out in just over 6 hours.
For 2025, the Montana Lottery added 120,000 more tickets and a fifth million-dollar prize for Montana Millionaire.
This year also featured more instant-win prizes, and includes a “Quarter Million Monday” drawing for $250,000 on December 1.
Tickets cost $20 each, and they went on sale on Saturday, November 1 at 5:30 a.m.
MTN spoke with people who were in line as early as 4:30 a.m. to get their tickets and received multiple reports of some people buying over $10,000 in tickets at several locations. However, most people MTN spoke with bought on average one to five tickets.
The grand prize drawing will happen on December 26, 2025
Last year’s Montana Millionaire tickets — 500,000 in total — sold out in less than three hours.
WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?
Money generated from the lottery is used in several ways.
“The lottery exists to generate revenue for the State of Montana. Most sales go towards paying prizes, operations, and essentially whatever is left at the end of that is what goes back to the state. That’s determined by state legislative action and the beneficiary, as we call it, has changed a number of times,” Montana Lottery content manager Dan Iverson told MTN News several months ago.
Currently, the first $2.25 million goes to the Montana Stem/Healthcare Scholarship Program, operated by the Office Of The Commissioner of Higher Education and the Montana University System. Anything over that goes to the state's general fund, which is dictated by the legislature. In 2023, the Montana Lottery saw around $147 million in total revenue.
2024 WINNING TICKETS
In 2024, Montana Millionaire featured 500,000 tickets; all of the tickets sold out within three hours.
The four grand prize winning tickets were drawn on Thursday, December 26, 2024. The winning tickets and where they were sold:
- 021333 – Cranny’s Club Tavern & Casino in Dillon
- 077800 – Super 1 Foods in Great Falls
- 143115 – Grand Slam Casino in Great Falls
- 416013 – Beartooth Harley Davidson in Billings
