I doubt think Publix selling so many jackpots is illegitimate. I think there's two things going for Publix:
1- They have a very large number of stores across the state, apparently 774 stores.
2- Alot of people have heard about big winners coming from Publix, and some play there exclusively because of that.
They definitely have numbers on their side. They also have a very transparent customer service area, and they train their employees to typically be very transparent when dealing with the money and lottery. I can personally only think of one incident where I had a Publix employee doing something shady with one of my tickets (I was cashing in more than $600 of winners, and I think she was new thinking that was the limit, so probably no malice, but I did notice she didn't return one of the $20 winners to me she refused to cash...probably an honest mistake though).
@ Dreamer - Congratz on the $500 win on Winning Streak! I've never seen anything more than $50 on that ticket. Generally speaking, that game does have decent odds on a $5 ticket for $500 and $1000 wins. I hope your next win is a claim to the capital!
@ Zzplay - Thanks for the updates. I'm tempted to stop by that Speedy Mart to finish off that roll. I'm trying to be on hiatus from playing scratchoffs for a couple or few weeks, however, since I'm going to be traveling to South FL again later this month for work and I will probably buy some scratchoffs at random locations when I'm traveling down there. Let's see if I can beat being at the right store at the right time like my encounter earlier this year where I bought into a jackpot yielding roll ($5) in Pahoke! With only 25 or some tickets remaining, that's a tempting purchase.
In order to feed the conspiracy theories...
4 lottery scratchoff claims in one day!?!?! Do we think they're trying to use this as a tactic to get us hooked for the new year? =p