Montana Lottery aims to prohibit bulk purchases after group takes gamble on $1.6 million jackpot

Comment #19

KY Floyd — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 06:28:31 GMT

So a well designed lottery game in your estimation is one where the odds are so high, no one ever wins the jackpot, but the state in question gets money forever.

Since I'm not an imaginary Ayn Rand fever dream I understand what lotteries are designed for. Prizes are just an undesirable necessity to separate players from their money. People with a poor grasp of reality are free to whine about how long a game goes without somebody winning, but having a better grasp of reality the only winner... [ More ]

Comment #18

JohnGalt3 — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 13:04:12 GMT

So a well designed lottery game in your estimation is one where the odds are so high, no one ever wins the jackpot, but the state in question gets money forever.

OK, dude.

The rest of us here are glad you don't run our state lottery as we actually buy lottery tickets to win.

Now, you may be correct when referring to the new Megamillions @ $5.00 per ticket. As I wrote when it first was proposed, you will see America's first $3 ,4 or 5 billion lottery jackpot. Who knows how high it wi... [ More ]

Comment #17

KY Floyd — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 06:13:36 GMT

I don't agree with this. It's the lottery's job to shut down so-called bulk ticket retailers, not collect all this money and then deny payment. That's what Texas tried to do to a winner and she had to sue them to collect.

Withholding payment to the woman in TX with no indication that her ticket was bought as part of a (still legal) effort to have the winning numbers as a result of an organized effort to methodically buy all of the combination was ill conceived, but it wasn't the lottery tha... [ More ]

Comment #16

poolshooter4 — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 19:09:38 GMT

So basically you are denying a group of the best odds of winning...... What difference does it make how the tickets were purchased IF they were purchased legally

Comment #15

myturn08 — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 20:37:58 GMT

on the initial winnings everyone pays federal taxes!! group ticket or not, the govt always get their money

Comment #14

JohnGalt3 — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 17:22:38 GMT

The buyer's address is in London, England.

The store was not in Madison, MT as the story says, rather it was in Ennis, MT as there is no Madison, MT.

My daughter lives in Ennis, MT and reports that the retailer is not a gas station, bar, supermarket so not like any other lotto retailer in Montana, but just a building with no other business. It is a front set up precisely to facilitate this nonsense. The company that owns this store has a phone app to buy lottery lottery tickets.

Who... [ More ]

Comment #13

play4shekels — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 16:17:36 GMT

Even more sad is the fact that the group won't pay a penny in federal tax by the time they write off the cost of the tickets, whereas the other winner isn't afforded that luxury.

Comment #12

JohnGalt3 — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 15:37:33 GMT

I live in Montana and I feel that everyone playing should have an equal chance of winning.

With bulk buying, when the buying of all number combinations guarantees a win and a profit after tax, I can't imagine that anyone thinks that is fair. It may be a smart move on the part of mega rich organizations to do this, but for the average person it is not a level playing field.

I started thinking about this a long time ago as something that would happen but it took retailers to have multiple... [ More ]

Comment #11

Tucker Black — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 07:08:24 GMT

I agree, it's not the safest risk of lottery buys (maybe they didn't have enough money or time to buy all combinations?), but still, a 30% return in a week is really good.

Comment #10

noise-gate — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 03:10:05 GMT

* Some people don't get it. because they think you have to be in a certain State to win. Besides if there were so called hot numbers the jackpots would be won on a weekly basis.

*Ever so now then you get a huge jackpot winner coming from a State with a population of less than 4 million persons, and won at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. It's never about the State, hit the numbers everything is Copacetic.

Comment #9

JustMaybe — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 01:02:36 GMT

I totally get it, I at least put in $2 on every PB draw, even when traveling out of the country for some weeks, I buy a multi draw ticket.

I know we have some that wait until the jackpot is 500M or something like that before they come in.

I know California gets the rap for winning, but again they put in the most and the data supports that.

So when I win one day, let everyone know that I always have my $2 in it even when it resets to 20M.

Comment #8

Kate — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 00:18:48 GMT

My guy, if 600 people spent $1,000 and won the jackpot, each person would walk away with about $325 after the split And that's also on a 50/50 gamble that they even win in the first place.

Comment #7

Tucker Black — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 23:10:20 GMT

They spent $600,000. They didn't spend millions. If 600 people got together to do this, they would only need $1,000 each. That's not stinking rich , that's being a smart gambler who knows enough other people to make it happen.

I would invest $1,000 into something like this, but the reason I don't is because I don't know 600 other people with $1,000.

In any event, I think it's silly to consider who contributed to a jackpot and who won it and what state they're from. Who cares? It's not a... [ More ]

Comment #6

noise-gate — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 22:45:38 GMT

* Yes it is a hard one Costigan makes a valid point. Your State pours money into a jackpot an outside entity swoops in claims it all. Then you have some members watching jackpots grow while they stand by doing nothing to make it grow then hope others don't win because they now have skin in the game.

Comment #5

Tucker Black — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 22:38:46 GMT

It would also grant the Lottery the ability to deny a claim for a winning lottery or sports wager ticket if it was found to have been purchased in relation to a bulk transaction.

I don't agree with this. It's the lottery's job to shut down so-called bulk ticket retailers, not collect all this money and then deny payment. That's what Texas tried to do to a winner and she had to sue them to collect.

If they want to make their lottery unattractive to bulk ticket purchasers when the jackpot... [ More ]

Comment #4

JustMaybe — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 22:35:27 GMT

This is a hard one.

If I lived in Montana and played that game with hopes of winning because the odds are better, I would feel bad if an outside entity did that.

Well, if I had a bunch of friends and we are stinking rich and we could go to some State and buy off a lottery and make a profit, for the fun of it and a good laugh later, would I do that?

I don't know.

Is it a moral or ethical question or is it a business/investor question?

Well, got my PB and MM ticket, hoping no o... [ More ]

Comment #3

noise-gate — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 20:52:52 GMT

* It's the old adage: We want you to spend your money on our games, but we going to tell you how much to spend, despite what you doing isn't illegal. Just saying..

Comment #2

Todd — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 19:43:39 GMT

Wait, are you saying that you are in favor of wealthy buying groups swooping in and buying jackpots?

Also, you make some kind of allegation about Pick 6 games being made harder. That's not what is happening here, and it's a Pick 5 game, not Pick 6. There was literally nothing in this article about making games harder to win.

Comment #1

spartan1707 — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 19:31:22 GMT

Total BS. This is the problem with these agencies. They spent the money and won this has happen since lotteries came to be. Groups are now smarter and using algorithms,prayers,voodoo etc etc but the difference is now they are using money to win as a group. State lotteries have been using the least played number algorithm though they claim they don't but the proof is there. From pick3-4-5 games now they will change the pick6 games to make it harder to buy all the combinations aka to buy out it wi... [ More ]

Montana Lottery aims to prohibit bulk purchases after group takes gamble on $1.6 million jackpot

Lottery Post — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 18:10:49 GMT

Smaller lottery unexpectedly targeted by purchasing group prompts security discussions

Plans partially foiled by another winner

By Kate Northrop

The Montana Lottery is the latest state to propose rules that would prohibit bulk ticket purchases after an unknown entity bought hundreds of thousands of tickets to scoop a $1.6 million Montana Cash jackpot in May.

One by one, state lotteries across the nation have been taking proactive steps to curb the possibility of organized groups