MISSOULA, Mont. — Montana Millionaire tickets for the 2025 lottery are set to go live soon and the anticipation for the annual game is surging.
Tickets go on sale at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, November 1, with all 620,000 available tickets vanishing before the day’s end, continuing a trend of quicker sellouts over recent years. The state lottery has added more tickets each year, but the rush to participate has only increased.
Montana Millionaire has seen a dramatic growth in the past few years. In 2022, tickets sold out in about 29 hours, but by 2024, the sellout window shrank to 2 hours and 46 minutes. A timeline that shocked even lottery officials. This year, the Montana Lottery has expanded the game to include 620,000 tickets. An increase of 120,000 from last year in anticipation of continued record demand.
“It’s a raffle game and so once one place is sold out, everywhere is sold out,” said Montana Lottery content manager Celina Clift. “As soon as that 620,000 ticket is sold, then it’s gone. We have a lot of confusion. People will go to certain retailers and stuff thinking that they’re not sold out or like this one’s not sold out, but it’s sold out everywhere.”
This year’s Montana Millionaire will feature five $1 million prizes, drawn on December 26, along with a $250,000 “Quarter Million Monday” prize on December 1. Players will also have a chance at 2,500 instant $500 prizes and 6,100 instant $100 prizes, with nearly 8,600 tickets delivering instant wins at purchase. The ticket price remains unchanged at $20, and sales will commence state-wide from 5:30 a.m. on Saturday at both traditional retailers and self-service lottery terminals.
Starting this year, Montana Millionaire is included in the Montana Lottery’s Players Club, a loyalty program allowing participants to enter tickets for extra rewards and monthly drawings. Proceeds from the lottery support the Montana STEM/Healthcare Scholarship Program and contribute to the state’s general fund. Clift said $2.25 million goes into scholarship program.
Clift said there’s been some discussions about limiting how many tickets each customer can purchase. Talks didn’t expand beyond that for fear of limiting the game.
“We don’t want to discriminate anyone,” Clift said. “That’s why we don’t card or have only Montanans by the game. we don’t want to eliminate anyone’s fun.”
According to Montana Lottery data, in 2024, two million-dollar tickets were claimed in Great Falls (Super 1 Foods and Grand Slam Casino), one in Billings (Beartooth Harley-Davidson) and another in Dillon (Cranny’s Club Tavern and Casino). The $250,000 Quarter Million Monday ticket last year was sold in Vaughn at the Office Bar & Motel.
Looking back to 2023, million-dollar winners came from Kalispell, Great Falls, and Billings, with high-dollar wins also recorded in city Albertsons stores. In 2022, the winning tickets included locations in Great Falls, Butte, and towns such as Fort Benton and Lincoln. Throughout the game’s history, Billings and Great Falls have produced multiple grand prize winners, with significant wins also in Butte, Columbia Falls, Dillon, Laurel and even smaller communities like Winnett and East Helena.
Even though Montana Lottery staff can’t participate in the game, they still get in on the fun. Clift says staff of the organization have an in-office guessing game. Seeing who can get the most accurate estimate to when tickets sell out this year. It may not be a million dollars but the winner gets a gift card. She said some in the office have predicted as early as 6:59 a.m. that Saturday.
“It’s just like our way of playing millionaire since we can’t play it,” Clift said.
Next year is the 20th anniversary of the event that has practically turned into a tradition in the Treasure State.
“I think, like, it’s just become more familiar. I mean, it’s the 19th year,” Clift said. “People are just expecting this game. It’s on the same day every year. It’s at the same time, same price point.”
