Sorry for the confusion, I meant to say that the requirements to be considered a Lucky Retailer has been lowered this year. On the website there will be more retailers popping up as a Lucky Retailer.
Prior to the change, a Lucky Retailer is a retailer that has sold at least 2 $1 million prizes in the form of draw games or scratchers. Now it is a retailer that sold at least 1 $100,000 prize or average $4000 a week in prizes or 400 winning tickets.
http://www.calottery.com/lucky-retailers/lucky-retailers-list
Before the $1 million scratcher top prize became common in 2009, that list was very short with Bluebird at the top. Yeah this whole lucky retailer is all supersititon that people choose to believe where you could go anywhere else and quickly buy your numbers.
What you described is the trend in lottery jackpot games.
Before Powerball got introduced to California in April 2013, there was a huge frenzy whenever MegaMillions reached $150+ million in jackpot. That is because the odds of winning the jackpot in MM at the time was 1 in 175 million, so people thought when the jackpot went that high it was going to be a positive expectation game (no house edge, usually lottery has 40-50% edge). And it will keep spiking until a winner hits, still remembering that $656 million from June 2012.
People are willing to buy tickets, even those who do not gamble avidly, when the jackpot is high. Even the 1 or 2 ticket buyers add up very quickly.
Powerball changed its structure the year before it reached California. Raising the starting point but more importantly, guaranteeing an increase of $10 million for each rollover draws without a jackpot winner. To accomodate for this, they went from $1 to $2 a ticket. With the jackpots growing to over $100million more often than people, people will buy the tickets.
MegaMillion adapted to the trend by creating a tougher matrix, 1-75 and 1-15 mega, while keeping the ticket to $1 (very very important move)
No one has to tell me and I can easily say MegaMillion has been the more superior game than Powerball in California. MegaMillion offers many winnable lower tier prizes despite the higher odds to win the jackpot, where Powerball rewards people with $4 or $7 or $100, or even less with the pari-mutuel system enforced by the government. Now the CALottery has to introduce the 2 SuperLotto/2 Powerball tickets for $5 for the second time, both of those games are struggling in sales.