SAN DIEGO -- Voters approved four compacts to expand Indian gaming in San Diego and Riverside counties in exchange for $122 million in annual payments to the state, election results showed Wednesday.

The four tribes affected will add a total of 17,000 slot machines to existing operations.

Propositions 94, 95, 96 and 97 asked voters to decide whether to approve deals reached with the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in Palm Springs, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians in Banning, the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians in Temecula and the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation in El Cajon.

With 98.5 percent of California precincts reporting, the measures were winning by a 56-44 percent margin, according to latest results from Secretary of State Debra Bowen's office.

In exchange for the right to expand, the tribes will pay about $122 million more annually to the state. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office negotiated the deals, which the Legislature approved in July.

"These compacts will bring in hundreds of millions of dollars per year to the state in funds for education, health care and public safety," Schwarzenegger said.

Opponents insisted the agreements were "sweetheart deals."

"This campaign was never about Indian gaming in general," Scott Macdonald, a spokesman for the Campaign Against the Unfair Gambling Deals, said in a concession statement Wednesday morning.

"It was always about four wealthy tribes and four specific deals -- and whether those deals were fair for taxpayers, fair for California's 104 other tribes, fair for the workers at those casinos and fair for the communities around those casinos."

He said the vote showed the voters "were willing to waive their concerns" about the expansion of gambling, because of a greater concern about the economy.

"Californians will be watching to see how the Big 4 tribes answer those questions of fairness now, as those tribes get their 17,000 new slot machines up and running," he said.

Anthony Miranda, chair of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, lauded voters who "rejected this effort by outside third parties who have their own financial and political agendas."

"Props 94-97 were a direct assault on the sovereign right of all tribal governments throughout the country to negotiate gaming compacts on a government-to-government basis as outlined in federal law," he said.

Schwarzenegger -- using the state's projected $14 billion budget shortfall as a reason to support the propositions -- said before the vote that the gaming compacts would generate about $9 billion for the state over the next two decades.

But not everyone agreed.

"Despite the promises the big four tribes used to woo the Legislature and are currently using to entice voters, the fact is these measures won't make a dent in the budget deficit facing California," Lenny Goldberg, president of the California Tax Reform Association, said recently.