GREAT FALLS — Casey Petero had a single Montana Millionaire ticket – a gift from her father-in-law.
When the Montana Lottery announced the winning Montana Millionaire number on December 27th, that ticket was sitting on Petero’s counter in Columbia Falls. Petero, a training specialist and mother of four young children, saw the winning number that day when she was scrolling through her Facebook. It looked familiar.
“I called my husband at work and told him I think I just won the lottery,” Petero said last Monday when she was in Helena with her family claiming the top prize. “He hung up on me in disbelief!”
The whole family enjoyed the excitement of Montana Millionaire. Petero’s father-in-law bought several tickets for his family members. When the winning number was announced, a number of them were within one to two digits away from the winning number.
Petero said she plans to pay off the family’s home mortgage and put the rest away for her children’s future, according to a news release from the Montana Lottery.
When asked what she likes most about the Montana Lottery, Petero had an easy answer: “Winning the million dollars!”
In addition to the million-dollar grand prize, there was also one $250,000 prize, three $100,000 prizes, and four $10,000 prizes.
All 180,000 tickets of the $20 tickets were sold out by 1:12 p.m. on December 2nd - five days earlier than in 2018. That is the earliest date in the game’s 13-year history.
Here are the big prizes and the winning ticket numbers from the drawing:
- 042230: $1,000,000 - Town Pump #3 in Kalispell
- 006944: $250,000 - Reynold's Market in Baker
- 100758: $100,000 - Agland Co-op in Wolf Point
- 052770: $100,000 - Town Pump #2810 in Helena
- 052564: $100,000 - TJ's Quik Stop in Poplar
- 063113: $10,000 - Town Pump #3900 in Thompson Falls
- 083973: $10,000 - Super 1 Foods in Kalispell/Evergreen
- 170668: $10,000 - Town Pump #2 in Dillon
- 147078: $10,000 - Pattee Creek Market in Missoula
There are also 750 prizes of $500, and 550 prizes of $100. Click here to visit the Montana Lottery website.
Most of the revenue from Montana Lottery games go into the Montana General Fund, with a smaller portion going into scholarships for Montana STEM Scholarship Program.
The winning million-dollar ticket has been sold in Billings four times since the game debuted in 2007. Stores in Great Falls and Butte have sold the grand-prize ticket twice each. Here is the list of all grand prize winners from previous years:
