Minnesota's License Lottery is Happening at Last!

June 3, 2025

License Lottery is Thursday, June 5

The long-awaited lottery to choose the applicants who will be able to move ahead in the capped license categories is finally here! As a reminder, this lottery will determine the applicants who are able to move ahead in these categories, and the number of licenses available:

The 75 slots for Retailer – Not SEA will not have a lottery on June 5. OCM has said that lottery will be held fairly soon.

What we know from OCM so far:

• The license application lotteries will be livestreamed for members of the public and the media via the office’s YouTube Channel:  youtube.com/@MNCannabisManagement.  Results will be posted to OCM’s website and shared with applicants after completion.
  

• The lotteries will be begin at 11 am (social equity - 4 categories) and 2 pm (general - 3 categories).

• I had hoped there might be drawing of balls with numbers on them, but no, OCM offered that it will look quite a bit like this Maryland lottery, which used the same vendors.

Wondering what your chances of being selected are? Check out this probability chart I put together and for more information see my complete post about it here.

And, as a reminder, the lottery does not affect the other license types, which are not capped by statute. Another way to think about this: only the above license types are limited to a set number by Minnesota's laws. Since there were more applicants than those numbers, then that is resolved by the lottery process.

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