Mohegan Sun’s parent, the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, reported growth Thursday in both its earnings and the size of its portfolio.

Hours before a quarterly conference call with investors and gaming analysts, it was announced that the authority has signed a contract to manage the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana’s Paragon Casino Resort in Marksville, La. Beginning Saturday, the authority will provide the Louisiana facility with gaming, hospitality and entertainment consulting services, according to the Louisiana tribe.

Paragon is the largest employer in central Louisiana.

“This is an important day for MTGA and for Indian Country as a whole, as our agreement with the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe provides further evidence of Indian Country's willingness to work together and share gaming expertise to attain the mutual benefits of self-sufficiency and diversification,” Bobby Soper, the authority’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

During the conference call, Soper noted that the authority’s “high-quality portfolio of assets” was set to grow from three to six properties over the next several years.

“It’s an exciting time at Mohegan,” he said later in a phone interview.

MTGA owns and operates Mohegan Sun in Uncasville and Mohegan Sun Pocono in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and manages and has an equity stake in Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City. It has development and management contracts with the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, which is building a $500 million casino in La Center, Wash., and has been awarded a license to develop a resort at Incheon International Airport near Seoul, South Korea.

MTGA officials reported that the authority’s net revenue during the quarter that ended March 31 totaled $331.8 million, a 6.9 percent increase over the same quarter in 2015. Net income, or profit, more than doubled, reaching $30.5 million. Adjusted EBITDA — earnings before interest, incomes taxes, depreciation and amortization — increased 18.2 percent to $88.3 million.

Overall, the authority’s gaming revenues of $296.7 million were up 7.9 percent, while nongaming revenues of $57.5 million were “relatively flat.”

Soper attributed the increase in gaming revenues to the fact that more people were visiting the authority's casinos and that their spending per visit was up.

“This trend really began a couple of years ago,” he said. “We started seeing stabilization (in revenues), and over the past year we've seen some positive incremental growth.”

Nongaming revenue at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville slipped 5 percent, largely because Mohegan Sun Arena hosted fewer shows during the quarter than it did the same quarter last year.

Soper said the Cowlitz casino project has not been slowed by opponents’ pursuit of a court injunction to stop construction. A federal appeals court’s ruling in the opponents' lawsuit is pending.

“We feel extremely confident we will prevail,” Soper said. “There’s a fully enclosed building now, and our forecast for completion in late spring 2017 is intact."

He said the authority is pursuing permits and financing for the $1.6 billion first phase of the South Korea project. The Mohegan-led partnership behind the project expects to break ground early next year and to open the facility in late 2019 or early 2020.

The Mohegans and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, owners of Foxwoods Resort Casino, are jointly pursuing a Hartford-area casino to compete against MGM Springfield, a $950 million resort casino being built in Massachusetts. The project depends on favorable action by the state legislature, which isn’t expected to consider it until next year.

Soper said that if the legislature grants approval in early 2017, the tribes could have Connecticut’s third casino up and running ahead of MGM Springfield’s projected opening in September 2018.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com