Short Summary: This page looks at the different forms of gambling in the State of Montana, discusses the legality of online gambling and gives a detailed listing of all of the Commercial and Tribal casinos in the state.
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Montana is known as “Big Sky Country,” “The Last Best Place,” and the “Treasure State.” Recognized for its small population, impressive mountains, and expansive landscapes, it has long been a favorite for those seeking isolation and communion with nature. Those wanting quick riches should also be delighted, as the state offers several forms of legal gambling within its borders.
Montana is generally a very liberal state (only time you’ll ever read that) when it comes to gambling laws. Earlier this year, they became one of the first states to legalize and regulate sports betting.
It’s unlikely that legalized and regulated online gaming will be coming to the state any time soon for a couple of reasons: The first is that it hasn’t had any meaningful legislation in that regard while the second is that Montana simply isn’t that big of a state. Perhaps the most likely outcome (way in the future) is that it is also operated by the State Lottery, or perhaps maybe they will jump in conjunction with one of the other states to have passed such Legislation and go through those casinos for a percentage.
Montana permits casinos, but those casinos are only authorized to have as many as 20 machines of which revenues the state takes a 15% cut.
As relates online gambling, Montana law has this to say:
23.5.112(20) and 23.5.112(21) combine to define Internet Gambling and to construe it as a crime. 23.5.156 offers a misdemeanor penalty for any illegal gambling device or illegal gambling enterprise in which, “A person who in an activity involving gambling offers or obtains money, property, or anything of value that does not exceed $750 in value by misrepresentation, fraud, or the use of an illegal gambling device or an illegal gambling enterprise is guilty of a misdemeanor and is punishable as provided in 23-5-161.” If it is over $750, the language is the same and it is a felony punishable by 23-5-162.
Thus, it is illegal for both players and operators to conduct online gambling. With that being said, we were unable to turn up any instances of prosecution for someone acting as a mere player, though the law does stipulate increased penalties depending on the amount won.
Charitable Gaming is permitted in the states, with various license types and associated fees depending on the type of gambling being conducted.
Montana is also home to a few Tribal Casinos, which we will discuss in greater detail later on.
UPDATE: In 2023, the Montana Lottery began offering online sports betting to residents throughout the state, which means that individuals no longer need to be located in close proximity to a physical sports book in order to get action down. However, no action whatsoever has been taken towards the state regulating online casino-style games.
Update (Dec 22): Sports betting is legal in Montana, which includes online sports betting, but only to an extent.
That extent is that there is only one website that operates a website, or mobile app, in the entire State of Montana. The reason for that is the fact that online sports betting was tied into a retail sports betting law that enabled retail locations to get licensed to offer sportsbooks, all of which is handled through the Montana State Lottery.
The requirements also state that sports betting online is only legal provided the person making the bet has been geolocated to be within a certain physical range of a legal retail location for sports betting, of course, if you are, then why not just use the retail location?
This is a bit similar to a state like Mississippi, where the law states that online sports betting is only legal provided the individual doing the betting is doing so from the land casino tied to the sports betting application. As a result, as of the time of this writing, Mississippi only has one sports betting website that actually operates.
According to WSN, two separate bills were presented to the Governor, with the Governor opting for the one that creates a less open market for online sportsbooks.
As of the time of this writing, there has never been a serious attempt to legalize online poker or casino-style gambling within the State of Montana, and given how restrictive the state’s online sports betting rules are, we expect such a bill to take several years, assuming it ever happens at all.
Fortunately, for those of you wanting to bet on casino-style games, or play poker, there are a wide variety of websites who have operated in Montana for years. Please feel free to check out some of the top picks that we have listed above!
Montana is one of the strictest states, if not the strictest, by letter of the law when it comes to Internet gambling. With graduated penalties relative to amount won and highly specified penalties for player and operator alike, the law is no joke.
That being said, we could not uncover any instance of anyone facing prosecution for the mere act of playing online, because how would the state know? We should also like to think that law enforcement has better things to do than enforce what you do or don’t do in your own house.
Montana licensed and regulated, “Casinos,” are permitted to offer as many as twenty machines that include video poker, video keno and slots. The maximum bet permitted on any of these machines is $2 and the maximum jackpot payout is $800. It would be completely impractical to highlight each individual casino, because really it would just amount to a bar with a few machines anywhere else, so we will only detail the Tribal Casinos in the state:
The Apsaalooke Nights Casino is located in Crow Ridge, MT and is owned and operated by the Crow Tribe of Montana. The casino closed in late 2017 due to a number of auditing failures.
There are conditions that would allow the casino to reopen, but those have not come to pass.
Charging Horse Casino and Bingo is located in Lame Deer, Montana and is owned and operated by the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. The Facebook page links to an information site that doesn’t work, so we called them for information. Unfortunately, we got an answering machine.
Their Facebook page at least says that they have 127 combined video poker, keno and slot games. There is one restaurant on the property. A total of seven Facebook reviews result in an average score of 3.1 out of 5 as of the time of this writing.
Fort Belknap Casino is owned and operated by the Fort Belknap Community of the Fort Belknap Reservation and is located in Harlem, MT. While they have a website, it is under construction, and judging by the 2012 copyright date, has been essentially forgotten about. With that, we turn to their Facebook page for information.
The Facebook page says close to nothing, though the property scores a 3.9 out of 5 based on nineteen reviews as of the time of this writing. We called the property and were told that gaming operations consist of about 150 machines and no other forms of gaming.
Glacier Peaks Hotel and Casino is owned and operated by the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana. The hotel consists of 86 total rooms and amenities include a complimentary hot breakfast buffet, indoor heated swimming pool, whirl pool, business center, fitness area, wired and wireless high-speed internet access. Lobby Newspaper, Guest laundry (self-serve).
Gaming consists of over 300 combined slot, video poker and video keno machines ranging in denomination from pennies to hundreds. Bingo runs from Tuesday-Friday and while there is a poker room, their website says that it is not currently in operation.
Dining consists of Jackpot Restaurant, Lucky’s Lounge and Glacier Grind Coffee House.
It’s pretty much a locals joint, but if you’re going to be in Montana and enjoy slot machines, this is one of the few hotel/casino combinations in the state.
Gray Wolf Peak Casino is owned and operated by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation and is located in Missoula, Montana. The property does not have a hotel. The exact machine count was not known to the phone operator and is not on their website, but she seemed confident that there are at least 350 machines on the gaming floor.
The Mountain Pine Grill is the property’s eatery and serves breakfast as well as mostly sandwiches for lunch and dinner.
The KawTaqNuk Resort Casino is also owned by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation and is located in Polson, Montana. The hotel consists of 107 total guest rooms and the casino houses 200 combined video poker, video keno and slot machines.
Falling Waters is the restaurant and serves American style breakfast lunch and dinner.
Northern Winz Hotel and Casino is owned and operated by Chippewa Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy’s Reservation, Montana and is located in Browning, Montana. A secondary casino, appropriately enough Northern Winz II, is also located in Browning.
They do not have a website, but instead have a Facebook page. The average rating, as of the time of this writing, is an impressive 4 out of 5 based on 64 reviews. The property is home to a restaurant and lounge and the Facebook page states that they now have gas. The hotel consists of ten rooms and there are 150, “Vegas-style,” machines.
They occasionally conduct bingo.
Silver Wolf Casino is owned and operated by Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation and is located in Fort Wolf, Montana. They do not appear to have a website, but instead opt for a Facebook page. They score 4 out of 5, but that is based on only five reviews, so take that for what it’s worth.
The Facebook page said very little and the call went to a voicemail. You can safely assume they have more than zero machines.
In 1992, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was passed in an effort to determine the legal status of sports wagering in the United States. Also known as the “Bradley Act,” this piece of legislation largely served to make sports betting illegal in most of the nation.
There were exceptions, however. The licensed sports pools offered in Nevada were exempt, and so were the sports lotteries conducted in the states of Montana, Delaware, and Oregon. States that had been operating casino gambling for the decade prior to the passage of the law were also given a 1-year window to legalize sports betting, although none chose to do so.
While the federal government doesn’t view sports betting as illegal in Montana, the state government does. They’ve long since severed their ties with this hobby, and even online companies are prohibited from offering betting lines from within the borders of the state.
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In addition to casino games, residents and visitors can both enjoy a game of Omaha, stud, or even Texas hold’em poker. Most poker rooms are smaller affairs, often with just a single table available. If you’re craving some poker action, however, one table should do just fine.
If you’re looking for legal poker within the state of Montana, I suggest giving one of these establishments a try:
Horse racing is legal in the State of Montana, but horses only run on very limited days throughout the year due to a general lack of public interest. In 2019, a bill passed that would permit the racetracks to operate historical horse racing machines in order to drive up revenues, as the industry was in serious trouble otherwise. Greyhound racing is illegal in the state.
Off-Track betting (simulcast) is legal in the state and is conducted, as of the time of this writing, at six locations which can be found here.
You will notice that none of those locations are actual horse racing tracks which is because the two active horse tracks in the state tend to only operate when there is a live racing event. There were only two such events (consisting of a few days apiece) on the calendar for 2019.
On paper, it looks as though Montana has a vibrant racing scene. In reality, however, the industry is barely on life support. The one permanent track in the state, Yellowstone Downs, is not currently conducting races, and this isn’t expected to change in the near future. A few other seasonal events have also been closed, leaving racing enthusiasts with only the following two options:
Available since 1986, the Montana Lottery provides scratch tickets and a number of different drawings to residents and anyone else within the state. The minimum age to participate is 18, and the various games have paid out over $300 million to players since its inception. Due to their membership with the Multi-State Lottery Association, Montana is also able to offer some of the most popular national lottery games.
The most recent Annual Lottery Report is for Fiscal Year 2017 and can be found here:
In it, we learn that the Montana State Lottery had $52,441,929 in total ticket sales of which $31,044,840 combined was returned to the players in prizes. That represents an overall return to player of 59.2% which is largely attributable to the percentage of drawing tickets sold relative to scratchers. The scratch-offs don’t pay much better, though, coming in at 61.4% return to player, which is among the worst we have seen.
Montana participates in the multi-state Powerball and Mega Millions drawing games. With a population estimate of 1.062 million, the average lottery spend per resident comes in at $49.38 with the average loss per resident at about $29.23. Those numbers are low compared to other states, but that is largely due to the several micro-casinos spread throughout the state.
Here are the most notable selections currently available:
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Montana is similar to states such as West Virginia and Illinois in that they have any number of properties that are permitted to operate a limited number of video lottery terminals and are accountable to the Lottery Commission. The main difference is that they only allow for that whereas the other two states have full-on commercial casinos, as well. There are any number of these 20 machine properties as well as the Tribal Casinos that we listed above.
Other than that, Montana is extremely conservative when it comes to gambling, with exception to the fact that they have authorized sportsbooks, which are governed by the Lottery Commission. There are no plans to have commercial casinos in the near future and they are one of the few states to go to great lengths to specifically outlaw Internet gambling recently, so don’t expect that to change anytime soon.
Granted, the horse tracks are now permitted to have the historical horse racing gambling machines, but it is somewhat baffling that they wouldn’t already have been allowed to have the twenty video lottery terminal games that are so prevalent elsewhere in the state. If the horse racing industry dies in Montana, that fact certainly didn’t do it any favors.
