Montana Lottery players lined up for a chance to win $1 million on Friday morning.

The lottery announced that ticket sales for the annual Montana Millionaire drawing would start at 5:30 a.m on Nov. 1.

The lottery game had 500,000 tickets available for purchase. Within three hours, tickets were sold out.  

“The demand for Montana Millionaire this year has been absolutely incredible,” Bob Brown, the director of the Montana Lottery, said in a statement. “We knew tickets would sell fast, but under a 3-hour sellout for 500,000 tickets is truly unprecedented.” 

On the lottery’s Instagram page, players are seen in long lines for a chance to try their luck at the million-dollar game.  Only four people can win the grand prize.

To have a chance at winning a prize, interested players paid $20 to play the game, the lottery said.  

“The Montana Millionaire lottery is back, and this year is the biggest yet!” Three Amigos Mexican Restaurant & Cantina, a retailer for the Montana Millionaire tickets, wrote in a Facebook post. “With 500,000 tickets up for grabs and FOUR massive $1 million grand prizes, 2024 could be your lucky year.” 

Montana Millionaire players could also win ‘Quarter Million Monday’

Players will also have a chance at winning $250,000 in the “Quarter Million Monday” drawing on Dec. 2, the lottery said.  

All players that purchased a ticket on Nov. 1 are eligible for the “Quarter Million Monday” drawing on Dec. 2 and the “Grand Prize” drawing on Dec. 26, the lottery said.

Lottery Winner: Man finds $20 on ground, wins $1 million after buying scratch-off lottery ticket

Montana Millionaire game sold out quickly in 2023  

The Montana Lottery said that tickets for the 2023 game sold out in five hours.  

In 2024, the lottery added 120,000 more tickets for players to purchase.  

What are the odds of winning Montana Millionaire?  

The overall odds of winning a prize in Montana Millionaire are 1 in 73.5, the lottery said.  

Here is a table that shows the odds of winning for each drawing.  

Can’t see the table? Click here to view it.  

The lottery said that the odds for the “Quarter Million Monday” drawing Prize will depend on how many tickets are sold before the drawing deadline.

How to play Montana Millionaire

To play Montana Millionaire you must purchase a $20 ticket. Tickets can be purchased at any Montana Lottery retailer (i.e. convenience stores, bars/taverns, grocery stores, and casinos), the lottery said. In addition, players can purchase tickets at all of the lottery’s self-service terminals throughout the state.  

Unlike traditional lottery games, Montana Millionaire does not have a play slip or numbers for players to choose, the lottery explains. Instead, every player that buys a ticket will be given a number that ranges from 000001 to 500000.

The deadline for the limited-ticket game was originally set for Dec. 25 at midnight, the lottery said. However, once tickets are sold out they are gone.

Ahjané Forbes is a reporter on the National Trending Team at USA TODAY. Ahjané covers breaking news, car recalls, crime, food recalls, health, lottery, and public policy stories. Email her at aforbes@gannett.com. Follow her on Instagram, Threads and X (Twitter) @forbesfineest.

A Montana man found slain in his tent this month welcomed the suspect in his killing, a stranger, to his campsite and offered him a beer, the Gallatin County sheriff said Thursday.

Daren Christopher Abbey, 41, was arrested this week and charged with deliberate homicide in the killing of Dustin Kjersem, 35, whose body was found in his tent near Big Sky on Oct. 12, officials said.

It was a “chance encounter” at the campsite on the night of Oct. 10, and Abbey did not know Kjersem, Sheriff Dan Springer said at a news conference.

Abbey had planned to camp at the site, but when he arrived that night he found Kjersem was already there, with a wall tent, beds and a stove, Springer said.

Abbey in a confession to detectives, “stated Dustin welcomed him to the campsite and offered him a beer,” Springer said.

“At some point, this individual struck Dustin Kjersem with a piece of solid wood, stabbed him in the neck with a screwdriver and ultimately hit him with the ax,” Springer said. “The motives of this attack are still unknown.”

The state crime lab matched DNA from a beer can found in the tent to Abbey, Springer said.

Abbey was arrested Saturday in Butte, around 80 miles northwest of Big Sky. He was interviewed by sheriff’s detectives and Montana Justice Department investigators Tuesday and confessed to the killing, Springer said.

Kjersem planned to spend the weekend at the campsite with his girlfriend. He set up the camp on Oct. 10, a Thursday, and he planned to pick his girlfriend up from work the next night, Springer said.

Kjersem never arrived. The girlfriend and a friend drove to the campsite on Oct. 12, a Saturday, and found Kjersem dead in the tent, Springer said.

Kjersem’s injuries were such that the person who reported discovering his body suspected he had been attacked by a bear, the sheriff’s office has said. An autopsy confirmed it was homicide, not an animal attack.

Abbey had been living in a couple of different areas but most recently had a residence in Basin, Montana, a small community in the mountains northeast of Butte, Springer said. He had been employed in the Big Sky area at various times, Springer said.

Abbey was arrested on a probation violation in Butte but is charged with deliberate homicide in Kjersem’s death, the sheriff’s office said.

State Corrections Department records show Abbey was on conditional release after a prison sentence for a 2020 repeat driving under the influence case.

Abbey was being held in custody Thursday night without bond, jail records show. It was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

The investigation could take months more. Springer said detectives will work to put together more pieces of what occurred, including what motive Abbey might have had.

“We have a bit of his story, but we don’t really know what the true story is,” Springer said. “We have a story — we just don’t know if it’s accurate.”

Springer said that after he killed Kjersem, Abbey removed items he may have touched or which could connect him to the crime, including a cooler and the ax. He returned the next night and took more items, Springer said.

The sheriff’s office previously said an ax, a Yeti cooler, a shotgun and a revolver were missing from the campsite.