Billings, Montana: Montana Millionaire Sales Postponed After Terminals Freeze on Opening Morning

Montana's biggest lottery morning of the year broke down within an hour of its start. Sales of Montana Millionaire tickets opened across the state at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, November 1, and the terminals that print the tickets began freezing under heavy demand almost at once. By about 11 a.m., the Montana Lottery had postponed the game.

The lottery first told players about technical problems at 5:59 a.m., less than half an hour after sales opened. An update at 7:56 a.m. said the disruption continued. At 9:30 a.m. the lottery was still saying the game was not postponed and that it was working with its vendor, Bally's Intralot, on a fix. Around 11 a.m. it gave up on the day and called the postponement.

Lines before sunrise in Billings

In Billings, the failure played out in store aisles. Customers were standing in line by 3:30 a.m. outside a gas station on Grand Avenue, the Billings Gazette reported. At the Circle K on Main Street in Billings Heights, Kevin Poelna said he had also arrived at 3:30 a.m., as he has come early for the game for 10 years. About 50 people filed out of that store after the postponement was announced. "What do you do?" Poelna said.

At the Cenex Zip Trip on Main Street, about 40 people packed the store around 9:45 a.m. waiting to buy tickets. Staff there said the outage hit just after sales started at 5:30 a.m.

The count of tickets sold before the system failed is not settled. Northern Broadcasting reported the problem surfaced after 8,902 of the 720,000 tickets had sold. The lottery's website counter still showed 719,963 tickets available early that morning, a number matching 37 tickets sold. Either way, only a small share of tickets reached buyers before the terminals stopped.

Tickets already sold stay valid

The lottery told buyers who did get tickets to hold onto them. Purchased tickets remain valid, players can redeem instant wins, and the tickets will stay in the prize pool when sales resume. A new sales date will be announced once the issues are resolved and sales and game data can be validated, the lottery said.

"We understand the impact this has had on our players and sales agents and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and frustration caused by today's events," the lottery said on Sunday. "We appreciate your patience as we work with our vendor, Bally's Intralot, to resolve the issue and move forward."

In a statement to NBC Montana, lottery officials blamed the failure on the agency's move to a new central gaming system provided by Bally's Intralot, and said they had identified three issues that caused the problem. Montana Millionaire is one of the most anticipated games of the year, lottery Security and Deputy Director Cory Bailey said in a release reported by Montana State News Network, adding that protecting the integrity of the game is the priority.

A 20 year tradition on hold

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Montana Millionaire. Tickets cost $20, and the game offers six $1 million grand prizes, 2,700 prizes of $500 and 7,000 prizes of $100. A $250,000 drawing is scheduled for November 30, followed by the grand prize drawings and a $20,000 Player's Club second chance drawing on December 28. Sales were set to end on December 27 unless the supply sold out first. Last year the full supply sold out in just over six hours.