Montana Lottery postpones Montana Millionaire raffle after launch-day system failures

The Montana Lottery has postponed its annual Montana Millionaire raffle after technical problems stopped ticket sales on the game's launch day, November 1, 2026.

Sales of the $20 tickets opened at 5:30 a.m. local time. The lottery reported problems on social media within the first half hour, paused sales, and at first said the game was not postponed. Around 11 a.m. it reversed course. "Due to continued technical issues affecting Montana Millionaire, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the game," the lottery said, adding that a new sales date will be announced once the issues are resolved and "all sales and game data have been properly validated."

What the Montana Lottery says went wrong

In a statement issued later on Sunday and published in full by NBC Montana, the lottery said it moved to a new central gaming system from Bally's Intralot in September, and that this is the first year Montana Millionaire has run on it. It identified three problems:

• Capacity: the system struggled with the volume of simultaneous transactions. The cause is still being investigated.
• Instant-win payouts: instant-win prizes were awarded more often than intended while sales were briefly open. To keep the game's odds intact, instant-win prizes worth about $500,000 will be added back into the remaining tickets.
• Information feed: game information did not display correctly on the lottery's website and mobile app.

Tickets and instant wins already bought remain valid, and instant wins can be redeemed, the lottery said. The game offers 720,000 tickets. When sales opened, the lottery advertised six $1 million grand prizes, 9,700 instant wins of $500 and $100, a $250,000 drawing on November 30 and grand prize drawings on December 28. It has not said whether those dates will change.

The Intralot contract

Intralot, Inc. announced in August 2025 that it had won a new seven-year contract, with three one-year extension options, to supply the Montana Lottery's operating system and retail terminals for about 1,300 retailers. The company has worked with the lottery for nearly 20 years. According to the lottery's fiscal 2026 annual report, the vendor is paid 5.05% of net lotto and scratch sales, down from 8% under the previous contract.

The same report puts Montana Millionaire revenue at $12.4 million in fiscal 2026, up 24% from about $10.0 million a year earlier.

Bally's Intralot had not commented publicly by the time of publication.

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