Mohegan — Buoyed by positive financial results they ascribed to efficient operations, good fortune and no longer pursuing a Massachusetts casino license, Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority executives told analysts Tuesday that the authority is well positioned for the future.

Despite year-over-year declines in gaming, nongaming and net revenues, the authority, which owns and operates Mohegan Sun in Uncasville and Mohegan Sun Pocono in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., posted a $15 million profit for the three months that ended March 31, a 56.2 percent increase over the same quarter last year.

“We have proven we can market effectively without chasing business,” Mitchell Etess, the authority’s chief executive officer, said during a conference call.

Mohegan Sun’s adjusted EBITDA — earnings before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization — was up 8.6 percent, partly because of the casino’s improved table-games revenues. Essentially, the casino was luckier at the tables than it was a year ago.

The casino also continued to reduce payroll and marketing costs.

“We’ve been scheduling more appropriately, to the actual volumes,” Etess said. “No one’s been laid off, but some people have left, some have retired.”

By limiting the amount of free slots play it doles out, the casino has been able to avoid crossing a threshold that would require it to pay the state a share. It also has eliminated some unprofitable bus runs.

“It’s nothing sweeping,” Etess said of the cost-cutting moves. “Basically, we eliminate what doesn’t work.”

The authority’s corporate expenses were down from last year, when it was in the midst of pursuing a license for a Greater Boston casino project proposed for Revere. The authority lost out to Wynn Resorts’ plan for Everett.

Authority officials also discussed projects that lie ahead.

Mario Kontomerkos, chief financial officer, said the Mohegans’ partners in Washington state, the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, could break ground on a long-awaited casino project by the end of the year. The Mohegan authority will help develop the $400 million to $500 million project and manage it for seven years.

By the end of the year, the authority also is hoping to win a gaming license that would enable it to develop a multibillion-dollar casino resort at Incheon International Airport in South Korea.

Closer to home, the Mohegans, who are expanding Mohegan Sun through the addition of a 400-room hotel expected to open in the fall of 2016, are pursuing state legislation that would enable them to jointly operate up to three more Connecticut casinos with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, owners of Foxwoods Resort Casino.

Bobby Soper, the authority president, said that if the General Assembly approves a bill by the June 3 end of the legislative session, the tribes could open a casino north of Hartford by 2017. MGM Resorts International, which is building a casino in Springfield, Mass., a few miles from the Connecticut border, expects to complete its project that year.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com

Twitter: @bjhallenbeck