Montana Millionaire lottery hopefuls lined up for tickets at 3:30 a.m. — the system crashed within 10 minutes

But this year’s Montana Millionaire lottery got off to a rocky start. The 20th annual event was supposed to kick off at 5:30 a.m., but technical problems brought ticket sales to a halt within minutes. By 11 a.m., the Montana Lottery made the “difficult decision” to postpone the event, according to local news outlet KPAX.

However, for the few thousand people who managed to buy tickets before the system went down, there’s one important thing they need to know: they’re still valid.

Many were lined up for hours

Many local lottery players were already lining up at gas stations around 3:30 a.m., eager to get their hands on a coveted $20 ticket.

“Everybody that’s lived here forever just kind of knows that’s the day. Every November first is Montana Millionaire Day,” Austin Miles told KTQV, while waiting at the Circle K on Grand Avenue in Billings.

At the same location as Miles, Jason Ans arrived just before 4 a.m. and managed to nab a spot near the front of the line. He told KTQV that he watched as the first few customers began buying tickets before the system suddenly stopped working.

“[The] first person in line, she got, I think, eight tickets, but they came out every five minutes or so,” Ans told the outlet. “Then the next guy went up, and then, boosh, it just crashed.”

Ans said he initially thought the problem might be limited to that specific location, but after contacting his son, who was waiting at another gas station, he realized the outage was affecting all retailers.

Many locals had brought chairs to sit in, while others stood in line as employees tried to get the lottery terminals working again. Ans told KXLH he had been waiting nearly six-and-a-half hours.

The setback came during a milestone year for Montana Millionaire, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The lottery offered 720,000 tickets this year — 100,000 more than the previous year. In 2024, the entire supply reportedly sold out in a record three hours.

At the time of publication, the lottery had not announced a new sales date.

Already bought a ticket? Here’s what happens next

After spending hours waiting for a chance to buy a ticket, some Montanans at least have something to show for it. The lottery says the tickets sold before the shutdown are still valid and will count toward the prize pool when sales eventually resume. Anyone who landed an instant-win prize can still collect it, too.

Getting the game back up and running is proving more complicated, however. The lottery told NBC Montana that its new gaming system, introduced in September, appears to have struggled under the rush of transactions when Montana Millionaire sales opened. Some instant-win prizes were also being awarded more often than intended, while the game’s information wasn’t displayed properly on the lottery’s website and mobile app.