For information how to properly conduct a Calcutta auction, see our Calcutta Guide.
For information how to properly conduct a Casino Night, see our Casino Night Guide.
It is not legal in Montana to use a credit card to gamble or run up a tab at a bar to pay for gambling activity. Gambling in Montana can only be conducted on a cash basis. A check or debit card may be used to obtain cash to participate in a gambling activity, but you may only present the cash needed to play the game as the game is being played. A check, debit card, credit card, note, IOU, or other evidence of indebtedness may not be offered or accepted as part of the price of participation in the gambling activity or of a debt incurred in the gambling activity.
Institutional Financing Guide
Help with designating and reporting a location manager for your operation. Click the title (above) or here: Location Manager Guide.
Raffles, Casino Nights, Calcutta Auctions, Bingo, and Poker Runs are outlined in our Gambling-Related Nonprofit Fundraising Guide
This is a resource available on how to properly conduct a raffle, and lines out the applicable changes with the passage of Senate Bill 25 from the 2017 Legislative Session.
To register for online raffles, fill out Form 46 and submit to the department.
For information on how to properly run a Shake-A-day dice game, see our Shake-A-Day Guide.
With the recent increase in forged VGM ticket vouchers around the state, our Investigations Bureau has put together a one page checklist that hopefully casino owners & managers will share with their employees. Our goal is to reduce and eliminate the success rate of these opportunistic criminals by educating and providing an easy, step-by-step checklist that will aid casino employees in spotting a forged ticket voucher. Our investigators are doing their part, but we need to focus on the front end of this problem through detection and deterrence.
The Video Gambling Machine Gross Income Tax is the most significant source of gambling revenue, and all of the tax is distributed to the state general fund. This 15% tax is applied to the income from line game, keno, and poker video gambling machines. Gross machine income is the total receipts from a machine, less the machine’s cash payouts. For example, if during a day $100 is inserted and played on a video gambling machine and $60 is cashed out, the gross income for the day would be $40. The tax would be 15% of that $40, or $6.
Taxes are due to the division by the 15th of the month following the end of the quarter (reporting period).