The Montana Lottery was authorized in November 1986 after the Montana State Lottery Act was passed by 69% of the popular vote, thus leading to the creation of the 23rd state lottery in the US at the time. The Lottery officially commenced operations in June 1987 with 1,047 retailers selling $1 scratch game Pot of Gold.

Montana was one of the original states which made up the Powerball draw when the game debuted in April 1992, while March 2010 saw tickets for fellow multi-jurisdictional draw Mega Millions go on sale in Montana for the first time. In between times, in December 1999, MontanaLottery.com was launched.

In June 2012 the Lottery celebrated its 25th anniversary, ending the fiscal year with record sales of $52.6m.

Since 1995 Montana Lottery proceeds have gone to the state’s General Fund, which provides money for state programs without dedicated revenues sources. The Lottery’s total payment to the General Fund for the fiscal year 2012 was $13.1m.