One thing that California is lacking is a good scratch-off game scheme. CA has some of the lowest payout percentages, if not the lowest, in the country. No scratcher pays out more than 64% of sales, compare that with it's northern neighbor Oregon, where no scratch-off pays out less than 65%. CA needs across the board increases in scratch-off prize returns, the more the better. They also need to remove the $5 price cap, as it is hurting revenue potential.

Plus, they need televised ball drawings for all games, not just SuperLotto Plus.

Looking at the state by state sales for Mega Millions, California with it's population is over 35 million only sold about six million dollars in tickets, the number of people who play Mega Millions there is fairly low in comparison, it's similar with Texas. Maybe it's because there are more or maybe more attractive options with the state lotteries? New Jersey and New York seem to be the most popular though I'd imagine that there are a lot of people who go into either state to play which is why sales there are roughly half (or better) each states population. Washington, California and Texas are the lowest.

Where can Mega Millions sales by state be found?

I found it at Lotto Report.

I guess the Texas number is probably not accurate, but I doubt it's significantly different.

I agree the payouts in California are usually worse than other states, and it makes people not want to play as much. But it's not like they're ever gunna increase payouts

The purpose of the lottery is to take money away from you, giving you a small amount is something they have yet to find a way around.  The politicians always claim to be on your side, but are N-E-V-E-R on your side.  If you find a decent politician before the election, you can bet you won't find him after the election.  Raise taxes or allow the lottery?  As often as not, they'll choose both and be dishonest about both options.

If Daily 4 follows sales trends in the industry (at least for the Western US) , it will sell about half of what Daily 3 sells.

If I recall correctly, CA sells about 4 cents per cap in Daily 3. Half of that (2 cents) would be about 720k per week, or about 35 million per year - about 1 percent of total sales.

Unless or until CA changs its ruls to allow fixed prizes on online games, this Forest Gump-like "you never know what you're gonna get" for prizes will kill any meaningful chances to raise sales and profits. (IMHO - but I don't believe any analyst in the industry has spent as many hours tracking CSL in their career).