Montana

Last verified September 27, 2026

By the Legal Sportsbooks US editorial team

Montana

Retail only

Legal since

March 9, 2020 (retail)

Minimum age

Regulator

Montana Lottery

Licensed apps

None (lottery app works only on licensed premises)

State law

Mont. Code 23-7-104 (Title 23, ch. 7, HB 725 of 2019)

Is sports betting legal in Montana?

Yes, in person only. House Bill 725, signed by Gov. Steve Bullock on May 3, 2019, made the Montana Lottery the state's sports wagering operator, and its Sports Bet Montana terminals went into bars and casinos starting the week of March 9, 2020. You have to be 18, and the lottery's app only works on the premises of a licensed location. Montana has no statewide mobile sports betting.

Where you can bet

Sports Bet Montana is the only state-authorized sportsbook. Bets go through a self-service kiosk or the SportsBet MT app, and state law confines app wagers to "the physical confines" of the single approved sports wagering facility, checked with location services. Facilities are lottery retailers that also hold a Montana gambling operator license, which in practice means taverns, bars, restaurants and casinos with a liquor license. Intralot reported about 1,300 retailers in September 2025.

The Lottery runs the book itself, so there's no operator tax. Retailers kept a 6% commission on bets placed at their locations in 2021, according to the Daily Montanan. After prizes, commissions and expenses, the first $2.25 million of lottery net revenue each fiscal year goes to the Montana STEM scholarship program and the rest goes to the general fund. Sports Bet Montana sold more than $66 million in fiscal 2025, which produced about $3.95 million for scholarships and the general fund, and the Lottery reported sales running 13% ahead of the prior year in April 2026.

The Fort Peck compact (2024) and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai compact (2026) both allow sports wagering in tribal casinos on the reservation. We couldn't confirm that either tribe has opened a sportsbook.

How Montana legalized sports betting

Before 2019: sports pools and a lottery

Article III, Section 9 of the 1972 Montana Constitution says "all forms of gambling, lotteries, and gift enterprises are prohibited unless authorized by acts of the legislature or by the people through initiative or referendum." Voters approved that authority in 1972 through a referendum the Constitutional Convention put on the ballot. Under the previous constitution, the Montana Supreme Court had ruled in 1950 that slot machines and punch boards were illegal.

Montana's sports pool rules date to 1974 (Ch. 290), and the current section authorizing sports pools and sports tab games to 1977 (Ch. 508). Both sit in Title 23, chapter 5, part 5. A bar with a gambling operator license can sell squares or tabs on a game, but the pool has to pay out 100% of what it takes in (a nonprofit may keep up to 50%), and the house can't set odds or take a cut. The pools are older than the 1992 federal ban, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, and Montana was one of four states courts and lawyers usually described as exempt from it, along with Nevada, Oregon and Delaware. The statute itself names no states.

Voters created the Montana Lottery on November 4, 1986, passing Legislative Referendum 100 with 69% of the vote, and it sold its first ticket on June 24, 1987, under the 1985 Lottery Act (Ch. 669). In 2007 the Legislature let fantasy sports leagues run as parimutuel pools through the horse racing network (Ch. 387). With the Montana Board of Horse Racing, the Lottery launched a parimutuel fantasy game, Montana Sports Action, in 2008. The same statute, MCA 23-5-802, makes it unlawful to wager on a fantasy league by phone or internet.

2019: HB 725 and the SB 330 veto

Murphy v. NCAA struck down PASPA on May 14, 2018, and the 2019 Legislature passed two competing bills. HB 725, sponsored by Rep. Ryan Lynch (D-Butte), put sports wagering inside the Lottery and passed 90-10 in the House and 34-16 in the Senate. SB 330, from Sen. Mark Blasdel (R-Kalispell), would have let private operators run sportsbooks in licensed bars and taverns. Bullock signed HB 725 (Ch. 284, L. 2019) and vetoed SB 330 on May 3, writing that "a new market like this cannot support sports wagering under both systems at once." The Secretary of State's veto override poll, released June 11, 2019, drew 54 House votes and 20 Senate votes, short of the 67 and 34 required.

HB 725 added sports wagering to the definition of a lottery game and put it under the five-member State Lottery and Sports Wagering Commission. The lottery's 18-and-over rule covers wagers as well as tickets. Its definition of sports wagering excludes skill-based fantasy contests and wagers made outside the state.

2020 launch and the Intralot contracts

The Lottery tied sports wagering licenses to the roughly 1,400 lottery retailers with liquor licenses and began licensing locations in late 2019. Intralot, the lottery's existing vendor, ran the sportsbook as a new lottery game under its 2014 contract. Terminals went live the week of March 9, 2020. The Lottery's communications manager said later that it "couldn't have picked a worse time" to launch, with the pandemic arriving that month. Bettors wagered $18 million in 2020 and $46 million in 2021 through December 27.

A 2023 conference-committee amendment to House Bill 51 let the Lottery hire a "person" without bidding, which Lottery Director Bob Brown later used to open renewal talks with Intralot. In February 2025, Senate President Matt Regier introduced SB 232 to close that exception, and the Lottery then put the contract out to bid. Intralot won again in September 2025 with a seven-year deal, extendable to 10, at 5 cents on the dollar, down from 8 cents.

2025: SB 555 and online casinos

The Legislature meets in odd-numbered years and didn't sit in 2026. In 2025 it passed SB 555, sponsored by Sen. Vince Ricci (R), 40-8 in the Senate and 88-11 in the House. Gov. Greg Gianforte signed it on May 12, 2025 (Ch. 626). It amended the gambling definitions and penalties. As amended, the code treats online casinos that take any form of currency as prohibited internet gambling and exempts those that use no currency at all. Knowingly operating an illegal internet gambling site in Montana is a felony punishable by up to 10 years and a $50,000 fine.

Sports betting court cases in Montana

Haman v. State (Montana Supreme Court, 1993)

The case concerned pull tabs. On December 16, 1993 (No. 93-295, 262 Mont. 458), the court reversed a Teton County judgment that had granted a distributor a license. Because of Article III, Section 9, it held, Montana's gambling statutes must be strictly construed to allow only activity that is "specifically and clearly" authorized.

Arete Group's challenge to the licensing rule (2020)

Arete Group, a private firm, argued it should get a sports wagering license without holding a liquor license. In October 2019 a legislative State Administration and Veterans' Affairs committee deadlocked on a vote to delay the Lottery's rules, so they went ahead. Arete sued in January 2020 and asked for an injunction, according to Legal Sports Report's February 25, 2020 account. We couldn't find a ruling in the case, and terminals went live that March.

KalshiEX LLC v. Knudsen (D. Mont. No. 6:26-cv-00028)

On March 26, 2025, the Gambling Control Division of the Montana Department of Justice ordered KalshiEX to stop offering event contracts in Montana. The letter cited the ban on unauthorized gambling (MCA 23-5-157), the internet gambling definition and HB 725's sports wagering definition, and said Kalshi held no Montana sports wagering license. On April 11, 2025 the division agreed not to enforce while Kalshi's Nevada case and any Ninth Circuit appeal were pending, and it confirmed that in writing on April 16.

The division sent a second order on April 6, 2026, noting that the Nevada injunction had been dissolved. Kalshi got it on April 11 and sued the next day, April 12, in the Helena Division. The defendants were Attorney General Austin Knudsen, division administrator Alex Sterhan, the division itself, and the five members of the Lottery and Sports Wagering Commission (Tony Harbaugh, Jon Metropoulos, Steve Morris, Leo Prigge and Janna Taylor). Kalshi claimed the Commodity Exchange Act preempts Montana law and moved for a preliminary injunction on April 21. The parties then stayed the case twice.

On June 1, 2026 the case was reassigned to Judge Donald W. Molloy. He denied a third stay on August 27, lifted the stay, and denied the injunction motion without prejudice. "Kalshi's repeated agreement to stay this matter for months at a time fatally undermines its ability to make such a showing," he wrote, referring to irreparable harm. He also gave the state 21 days to answer.

The parties filed a joint stipulation on September 17, 2026. Montana agreed not to bring any enforcement action, investigation or cease-and-desist proceeding over Kalshi's event contracts traded on a designated contract market until the later of two events: the Ninth Circuit denying Kalshi's further-review request in the Nevada case, or an en banc decision. The attorney general and the division must give Kalshi 30 days' written notice before any later action. Molloy dismissed the case on September 21. The dismissal is with prejudice as to the five commissioners, who under MCA 23-7-212 can only report violations to the attorney general or other authorities, and without prejudice as to Knudsen, Sterhan and the division.

Ninth Circuit rulings that bind Montana

In KalshiEX, LLC v. Assad (No. 25-7516), decided August 28, 2026, a panel affirmed the dissolution of Kalshi's injunction against Nevada regulators. It held that Kalshi hadn't shown the Commodity Exchange Act likely preempts state gaming law as applied to its sports event contracts. Kalshi petitioned for rehearing en banc on September 9, and we found no order on the petition by September 25. Montana's standstill runs until it's resolved. In Blue Lake Rancheria v. Kalshi, Inc. (No. 25-7504), decided September 16, the court held that two California tribes are likely to show that Kalshi's sports contracts entered on tribal land are Class III gaming offered without a compact. Montana didn't sign the 39-state amicus brief backing Nevada in the Ninth Circuit. The Third Circuit went the other way in New Jersey's case, and New Jersey's petition (Flaherty v. KalshiEX, LLC, No. 26-299) is pending at the Supreme Court.

Prediction markets and daily fantasy

The Montana Department of Justice treats sports event contracts as illegal sports wagering, but it has agreed not to act against Kalshi until the Nevada en banc question is resolved (see the court cases above). Kalshi is the only prediction market operator in a federal case in the District of Montana, and we found no published Montana cease-and-desist order against Polymarket, Crypto.com, Robinhood, Underdog or Novig. Brady Shulz, the Lottery's sports betting manager, told NBC Montana in April 2026 that prediction markets had "found a loop hole." Novig, run by Ludlow Exchange, LLC (designated a contract market by the CFTC on June 16, 2026), takes Montana traders who are 21 with ID, since its eligibility page excludes only Nevada, Arizona and Michigan.

Paid online daily fantasy isn't legal. MCA 23-5-802 allows fantasy leagues but bans wagering on them by phone or internet, and commercial establishments that run in-person leagues can keep no more than 15% of each entry fee as an administrative fee.

Help with a gambling problem

Montana Council on Problem Gambling 24-hour helpline: 1-888-900-9979. The National Problem Gambling Helpline, 1-800-MY-RESET, takes calls and texts.

Sources

Common questions

How we track and verify state laws

What does Legal Sportsbooks US track?

Every state's legal status, the date betting became legal, the minimum age, the regulator and the licensed apps, plus the legal history and court cases behind them, for all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Our page on how we track and verify state laws explains the details.

What do the statuses mean?

Online and retail means licensed mobile apps and in-person sportsbooks both operate. Online only means betting happens through licensed apps, with no retail sportsbooks. Retail only means you can bet in person at licensed venues, but there's no statewide app. Not legal means no licensed sportsbooks operate. Legislation pending means a bill or ballot measure is moving, but betting hasn't launched. Not yet verified means we haven't confirmed the state's current status.

Can I bet on sports where I live?

The rules follow where you are when you place the bet. Licensed apps use geolocation to confirm you're inside a state where they can operate, and some states limit betting to certain premises. Find your state in the state index, or read our guide to location rules.

How old do you have to be to bet on sports?

It's 21 in 33 of the 40 jurisdictions with legal sports betting and 18 in five: Washington, D.C., Montana, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Wyoming. In North Dakota and Washington, the tribal casino sets the age.

How current is the tracker?

State laws and licenses change, so every state entry records the date it was last verified. If a status looks out of date, the state regulator's website has the official answer.

Is this legal advice?

No. We summarize public information about state sports betting laws. Confirm the rules with your state regulator before you bet, and don't wager more than you can afford to lose.