$1 million ticket sold in C. Falls

The Daily Inter Lake

The winning ticket for the Montana Millionaire drawing was sold at Mike’s Conoco in Columbia Falls, and it was the talk of the town Thursday at the popular convenience store.

“There’s excitement in the air,” Mike’s manager Kristy Stevenson said. “Everyone wants to know if someone local won.”

The numbers for the winning ticket — worth $1 million — are 090907.

Helen Wortham of Billings and her son Sheldon Wortham claimed a $100,000 prize. The other $100,000 ticket, with the winning numbers 046264, was sold at the Tip It Bar in Havre.

The $10,000 winning numbers are 027195, 052827 and 082437. The tickets were sold at Smith’s Food & Drug in Bozeman, Safeway in Helena and Superpumper in Sidney.

Montana Millionaire sales began Nov. 1 with 130,000 tickets available for $20 each. The Montana Lottery event was so popular tickets sold out early for a second year.

“We sold a lot of tickets,” Stevenson said, adding that one store clerk was strongly encouraging customers to buy tickets.

Mike’s has had a couple of $5,000 lottery winners through the years, but it’s the first time in Stevenson’s 25 years on the job that a ticket worth so much has been sold at the store.

The Montana Lottery was created by referendum in 1986. Since then, it has paid more than $465 million in prizes and returned approximately $210 million to the state of Montana.