Montanans really want to win a $1,000,000. The Montana Millionaire game went on sale this morning at exactly 5:30 am and by a 8:16 am the tickets were completely sold out. In less than three hours 500,000 tickets were sold.

Some convenience stores across the state saw full parking lots and lines out the door before the tickets went on sale. We were lucky enough to find a convenience store at 5:20 am with no line, we got our tickets and in mere minutes we saw the numbers jump on the ticket numbers.

We spoke with Celina Clift of the Montana Lottery shortly after they sold out and the lottery workers were once again amazed at the excitement surrounding the game. Clift gave us some numbers already from this year's game.

  • 500,000 tickets sold in 2 hours 46 minutes and 31 seconds. That is 3,086 tickets sold per minute.
  • Ticket #1 was sold a the Wild Hare Bar and Casino in Great Falls.
  • Ticket #500,000 was sold at an Ole's store in Missoula.
  • 2300, $500 instant win tickets were sold.
  • 4500, $100 instant win tickets were sold.
  • 2023 between 5:30-6:00 am there were 29,751 tickets were sold.
  • 2024 between 5:30-6:00 am there were 104,987 tickets sold.

The Montana Lottery website had a ticket counter for the event, but it experienced a delay. They sent out notifications to players letting them know. The Montana Lottery was able to track the ticket sales and when it was getting down to the last tickets sold, Clift said they "saw it go from 9,000 tickets left to 5,000 tickets left in like a second".

Clift wanted to thank everyone involved, including the players.

We want to thank all of our players, obviously they're just as excited about Montana Millionaire as we are...we were told by one player that came to the lottery that "Montana Millionaire Day" is the new Black Friday, that they get more excited about buying Montana Millionaire tickets than the sales and the deals that go on sale at their favorite stores.

One question we asked Clift was if there were any plans to change the start time of the Montana Millionaire in the future? Next year November 1 lands on a Saturday and in 2026 it will fall on a Sunday. Right now Clift can't speak to any changes to the game. It is too soon after what happened today. The Montana Lottery will announce any changes to the game, if there are any, next spring.

One reason tickets sold out so quickly this year, according to Clift, was there were more locations that were open when tickets went on sale at 5:30 am. There are convenience stores and bars that aren't normally open at that time of the morning, but for this event they were open.

Hold onto your tickets. The grand prize drawings will be held December 26th. If you missed out on Montana Millionaire tickets, there is another opportunity for Montana Lottery players to win $1,000,000 with the "2nd Edition Millionaire Maker" scratch game. Tickets cost $30 and the odds of winning $1,000,000 are one in 98,850.

Good luck to all the players this year, and remember to please play responsibly.

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