Montana Lottery hands out big wins in Big Sky Country

March continues to be a lucky month for players in the Montana Lottery, which always shares the high-tier winners every week.

This week's high-tier winners in Montana

Since March 18, the Montana Lottery has awarded $136,828 in high-tier prizes.

What is a high-tier prize? For the Montana Lottery, it is any prize of $600 or more. The Lottery always shares the winners of $5,000 or more, which are listed below.

• Powerball winner from Bozeman — they claimed their prize of $100,000 on March 20. The winning ticket was purchased at the Town Pump of Bozeman on 2607 West Main.
• Lucky for Life winner from Townsend — they claimed their prize of $5,003 on March 22. The winning ticket was purchased at Bob's Supermarket in Townsend.

Lucky for Life — how does it work?

Lucky for Life is a draw game held every day at 10:38 p.m. ET. The draws are actually held in Des Moines, Iowa. Currently, there are 23 jurisdictions that participate in the Lucky for Life game, including Montana, of course.

To play, you need to select five numbers from 1 to 48 and then pick a Lucky Ball from 1 to 18. The Lucky Ball is a sixth ball, and if you match it, you earn a prize of at least $4, depending on if you match other numbers, too. Each ticket costs $2 to play.

The top prize for the Lucky for Life game is $1,000 a day for life or $5.75 million as a one-time payment. There are 10 prize categories to win from, ranging from $4 up to the jackpot.

If you win the first or second prize, then you can claim it as a one-off cash lump sum or as a regular annuity payment. If you choose the annuity payments, you will receive regular payments for life or for a minimum of 20 years, whichever is longer. The top prize will be paid out weekly, and the second prize will be paid annually.

Montana Lottery has delivered

The Montana Lottery has been making winners since it began in 1987. In fact, they have generated $320 million to benefit the State of Montana. The Lottery has also paid out more than $853 million in prizes to their winner — the vast majority of which are Montanans.

The lottery in Montana was created to generate revenue — and some fun along the way also — for the citizens of Montana. Since its inception, state lawmakers have changed the state programs funded by the revenues of the lottery.

Since the 1990s, the revenue from the Montana Lottery has gone into the Montana General Fund. This fund is used by state lawmakers to help fund the majority of state government and programs.

When the Montana Lottery was created, the documents stated that 45 percent of the lottery's revenue needed to be paid back out as prizes.

Enjoy playing the Montana Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.