Bally’s Intralot to cover $600,000 in extra lottery prizes after Montana system crash

The Montana Lottery paused sales of its flagship raffle game on Sunday morning after a central gaming system failed to process high transaction volumes. The disruption forced the state to delay the annual Montana Millionaire event, leaving thousands of customers waiting at terminals across the state before the game was officially postponed at 11 a.m.

Lottery Director Bob Brown stated that the state and its vendor, Bally’s Intralot, had tested the new system installed earlier this year. Brown said the tests included a volume simulation approximately double the highest historical sales for the game. Despite this preparation, terminals began displaying the error message “Transaction not allowed” shortly after sales opened at 5:30 a.m.

The system handled a large number of transactions that caused performance issues, according to the Lottery. Brown declined to provide specific technical details on Monday but confirmed that a fix has been identified. The state and Intralot are now testing the solution before bringing the game back online. Brown noted that the team initially attempted to resolve the issue quickly to minimize the wait for customers.

Only 12,919 of the 720,000 available $20 tickets were sold during the brief window of availability. A statistical anomaly occurred within those sales, with more than 2,000 tickets designated as instant winners. Specifically, 991 tickets won $100 and 1,019 won $500. This resulted in a win rate of roughly one in six, compared to the expected odds of one in 74.

Brown said all instant wins from Sunday will be honored. The tickets sold during the partial sales period will also remain valid for the final drawing scheduled for December. The Lottery is adding back the value of the instant winners that were removed from the pool to ensure future buyers have consistent odds. This adjustment requires the state to pay out up to $600,000 more in prizes than originally projected.

Intralot will cover the additional cost of these extra prize payouts. Brown said he was encouraged by the vendor’s decision to absorb the financial difference to maintain fairness for players. The Lottery is committed to running the system through multiple successful tests before it is released to the public again.

No specific timeline has been set for the resumption of sales. Brown indicated that the Lottery wants to provide retail partners and the public with sufficient notice. The game has seen growing popularity, with 620,000 tickets selling out in just over six hours in 2025.