Part of United States
Montana has one of the oldest and most distinctive gambling regimes in the United States, and almost none of it is online. There are no casinos. Gambling is a network of licensed premises, most of them bars and taverns, each holding a Department of Justice gambling operator licence and running video gambling machines whose gross income is taxed at 15% and paid into the general fund. Sports wagering arrived in 2019 not as a licensed market but as a lottery product: the Montana Lottery runs Sports Bet Montana through licensed sales agents, and the statute is explicit that a sports wagering licence covers mobile wagering only when it is initiated and received within the physical confines of the single approved facility, enforced by location services. A bettor can use the app, but only while standing in a licensed premises. Online casino and online poker are prohibited outright: the code defines online casinos as internet gambling and says so in terms, carving out only currency-free social games, advance deposit wagering on horse racing and the lottery itself. The minimum age is 18 and wagers cannot be placed on credit. Montana's significance to the wider industry in 2026 is as an early front in the prediction-markets dispute. The Gambling Control Division told Kalshi in March 2025 that its sports event contracts were illegal gambling under Montana law, repeated the demand in April 2026, and Kalshi sued the Attorney General in federal court, where its request for an injunction was reported denied.
Reading 'mobile sports betting' in Montana as statewide. The app works only inside a licensed premises; there is no remote market to enter.
Montana Code Annotated Title 23, Chapter 5 (Gambling)
KalshiEX LLC v. Knudsen, No. 6:26-cv-00028 (D. Mont.)
12 Apr 2026
Kalshi sued the Attorney General and state gaming officials on 12 April 2026 after the Gambling Control Division's cease-and-desist notices, and moved for a preliminary injunction on 21 April 2026, arguing its sports event contracts fall under exclusive CFTC jurisdiction. Press reports say the injunction was denied; the order was not in the public archive at the accessed date. Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73181283/kalshiex-llc-v-knudsen/
Gambling operator licence (Department of Justice)
Sports wagering licence (Montana Lottery sales agent)
Kalshi sued the Attorney General and state gaming officials in the District of Montana after cease-and-desist notices dated 26 March 2025 and 9 April 2026 (dates per press reports); preliminary injunction motion filed 21 April 2026 and reported denied.
3 May 2019
House Bill 725 (Ch. 284, L. 2019) authorises the Montana Lottery to conduct sports wagering through licensed sales agents.
26 Mar 2025
Gambling Control Division issues its first cease-and-desist notice to Kalshi over sports event contracts (date per press reports).
12 Apr 2026
KalshiEX LLC v. Knudsen filed in the District of Montana.
Nothing in the current statute opens a private online market, and no bill to do so has been enacted. The live question is the Kalshi case in the District of Montana and how it lines up with the Sixth Circuit's Tennessee and Ohio appeals; a ruling that state gambling law reaches CFTC-listed sports contracts would settle Montana's position, and one the other way would leave the lottery's on-premises monopoly competing with a nationwide app.
A King County judge has refused to revisit the injunction that keeps Kalshi's sports, election and entertainment contracts out of Washington, rejecting the argument that rivals are still operating there. In the same week Kalshi asked for 30 more days on New Jersey's Supreme Court petition and Montana agreed to stand down until the Ninth Circuit rules en banc.
Sweepstakes casino sites in Louisiana have received a reprieve after Governor Jeff Landry vetoed Senate Bill 181 (SB181), legislation aimed at banning the
Montana Legislature
Montana Legislature
Montana Legislature
Montana Legislature
Montana Legislature
Montana Lottery
United States District Court for the District of Montana, via CourtListener (RECAP)
Bozeman Daily Chronicle
Tier 2. Used only for the cease-and-desist dates (26 March 2025 and 9 April 2026) and the reported denial of Kalshi's preliminary injunction; the order itself was not in the public RECAP archive at the accessed date.