Montana Licenses Card Tables in Bars and Taverns Statewide

A Montana "card room" is legally just a tavern with a state permit bolted onto it. MCA 23-5-306 lets any operator holding both a 23-5-177 gambling operator's license and an on-premises liquor license apply to the Department of Justice Gambling Control Division for an annual live card game table permit. The fee is flat and non-prorated: $250 for the first table, $500 for each additional table, of which the department keeps $100 per table for administration and sends the rest quarterly to the county or municipal treasurer where the table sits.

Only ten games qualify under MCA 23-5-311: bridge, cribbage, hearts, panguingue, pinochle, pitch, poker, rummy, solo, and whist, anything else on a permitted table is unauthorized gambling, not a card game exception. Every panguingue or poker table must run under a licensed dealer: MCA 23-5-308 bars anyone from dealing those two games without an annual department license, issued for a $75 first-year fee and $25 to renew, non-prorated, with the license required to be carried and shown on demand. MCA 23-5-309 ties it together, a live card game has to be played on a permitted table on a licensed operator's premises, and panguingue or poker specifically has to be dealt by that licensed dealer.

under MCA 23-5-307, though a city or county may adopt its own ordinance to allow play through those hours locally. No single hand's prize may exceed $800, and operators cannot combine games to push a payout past that cap (MCA 23-5-312). Crucially, MCA 23-5-321 strips local governments of any role in permitting: a city, town, or county may not issue card-game or card-table permits on its own, the entire licensing chain runs through the state department, not city hall.

Dealing panguingue or poker without a department dealer license, running an unpermitted table, operating past the 2 a.m. cutoff without a local ordinance authorizing it, or paying out more than $800 on a hand are all violations of Part 3. MCA 23-5-331 makes a purposeful or knowing violation a misdemeanor punishable under MCA 23-5-161: up to a $500 fine for a first offense, escalating to $1,000 and possible jail time on a second conviction within five years, and a $10,000 fine plus permanent license revocation by a fourth conviction.