Jan. 30–The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority had its strongest profit margin in eight years as the Native American casino company slashed expenses, including cutting hundreds from its workforce in a year’s time.

During a conference call with Wall Street analysts, the tribe also said it expects to break ground soon on a second hotel, adding 400 rooms to its existing 1,200 rooms.

After the financing for the hotel is completed, the tribe can break ground, hopefully in the next two months, Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority CEO, Mitchell Etess said in a phone interview.

Etess said the casino’s hotel books up regularly and Mohegan Sun turns away guests so often it equates to “hundreds of thousands” of hotel-room stays annually.

“We have a lot of unmet capacity here in terms of hotel demand, and it’s been something we’ve been desirous of for quite awhile,” Etess said, adding, “It allows you to get more people to stay over, which gets people to stay longer.”

The tribal gaming authority owns and operates Mohegan Sun in Uncasville and Mohegan Sun Pocono in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. The tribe operates on a fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

On Thursday, the gaming authority reported net income for the quarter of $14.77 million, compared with a net loss of $67.2 million during the same period in 2013. The tribe took a $62.1 million loss to extinguish debt in the final months of 2013. The tribe also had greater “other expenses” in 2013, largely due to its campaign to get a casino license in Massachusetts. Other expenses totaled $35.4 million for the quarter, compared with $100.7 million in the same period a year earlier.

The adjusted EBITDA margin of 22.4 percent at Mohegan Sun was the highest for the quarter since 2006, said Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority CEO, Mitchell Etess. EBITDA, a measure of profitability, stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Operating income was $49.8 million, up 49.6 percent from $33.3 million during the same period in 2013. The tribe cut expenses, including its workforce. Mohegan Sun had about 7,300 employees as of Dec. 31, 2013, and that declined to about 6,900 as of Dec. 31, 2014. The workforce figures don’t includes tenant companies, such as restaurants and retailers that are privately owned and operated at Mohegan Sun.

Quarterly net revenues were up to $316.7 million from $312.8 million during the same period in 2013. Sales were up for gaming and hotel stays, but were down for retail, entertainment and food.

“While our revenue increase is modest, it was the first time we’ve experienced increase in gaming revenues and non-gaming revenues on a consolidated basis since the first quarter of 2012,” Etess told Wall Street analysts during a conference call Thursday morning.

The tribe cut operating costs and expenses, which were $267 million for the quarter, down from $279.5 million during the same period a year earlier.

The tribal gaming authority ended the calendar year with $1.74 billion in long-term debt.

While the tribal gaming authority is not a publicly traded company, some of its debt is in publicly traded bonds, which is the reason it reports quarterly results.

The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority took over management in August 2012 of Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J. Etess noted that it was one of the casinos that stayed open while four major casinos closed last year, and it got more than its fair share

“We refined the marketing and it’s doing better. … If we hadn’t been there, it probably would have been one of the ones that closed,” Etess said of Resorts.

Mohegan Tribe Chairman Kevin Brown said the tribe is constantly looking for ways to reinvigorate and reinvent its properties. One example is its new professional lacrosse team.

The tribe is “undergoing an intense master planning effort,” he said, adding, “We’re identifying and prioritizing our financial commitment to lucrative amenities and programming. These include the second hotel here in Connecticut that we plan to break ground on here in the near future, and a number of other exciting destination concepts.”

The tribe is also working to reduce its debt, Brown said.