The company, majority owned by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, saw record profits at several of its Las Vegas hotel-casinos, but had an unlucky run at the baccarat tables and said it suffered as competitors with casinos in Macau were able to attract new high-end gamblers from China to their properties in Las Vegas.

Earnings soared to $360.2 million, or $1.22 per share, in the three months ended June 30 versus $146.4 million, or 50 cents per share, in the same period the previous year. The latest results include a $263.9 million pretax gain on the sale of Primm Valley Resorts and MGM's Colorado Belle and Edgewater properties in Nevada.

Income from continuing operations rose to $182.9 million, or 62 cents per share, compared with $143.3 million, or 49 cents per share.

Analysts expected net income on that basis of 58 cents per share, according to a Thomson Financial poll.

Quarterly net revenue after promotional allowances rose 10 percent to $1.94 billion from $1.76 billion a year ago.

Shares rose $2.59, or 3.6 percent, to $74.89 Thursday.

MGM Mirage plans to open its MGM Grand Macau joint venture in the Chinese gambling enclave in the fourth quarter, but competitor Las Vegas Sands Corp. has had a casino there since May 2004 and is opening a second, the $2.4 billion Venetian Macao, this month. Wynn Resorts Ltd. opened the $1.2 billion Wynn Macau last September.

"It's clear there are new people we don't know that are visiting the Wynn and Sands properties in Macau and they're properly, and give them credit for it, taking advantage of that and welcoming them here in the States," MGM Mirage chief executive Terry Lanni said.

"We need to level that playing field and we will do it when we open the MGM Grand Macau in the fourth quarter of this year," he said. "Until then, we're going to be disadvantaged."

MGM said its results benefited from otherwise solid operating margins and strong sales of condo-hotel units at Tower 3 of The Signature at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Profits from the condominiums increased overall earnings by 10 cents per share.

Las Vegas Strip revenue increased to $1.64 billion from $1.56 billion, while revenue from Mississippi properties jumped to $138.2 million from $38.6 million, mainly due to the Beau Rivage casino which opened in August last year.

Las Vegas Strip revenue per available room, also known as REVpar, grew 7 percent.

The company said it would open the MGM Grand Detroit on Oct. 2 and highlighted a range of development projects, including a joint venture with Kerzner International Holdings Inc. to develop 40 acres of land on the Strip south of Sahara Avenue.

After buying the land in the deal for $17.2 million per acre in April, MGM was able to contribute it to the joint venture at $20 million per acre, and expects to take $200 million in cash out of the deal before shovels enter the ground, executives said.

The company has more than 750 acres of open or underdeveloped land on the Strip, and has been contacted by several potential partners interested in joint ventures, Lanni said.

"I think the Kerzner joint venture proved how valuable that land is as currency in getting deals done," said Robert LaFleur, an analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group. "If you can replicate that three, four or five times over throughout the world, those things start to add up pretty quick."

Lanni also said a joint venture with the Mubadala Development Co. of Abu Dhabi would develop a non-casino hotel in the emirate and another on the Las Vegas Strip between Excalibur and Mandalay Bay.

Lanni shrugged off dragged out contract talks with the Culinary Union, which represents 21,000 workers at MGM Mirage properties in Las Vegas. Negotiations since March have not led to an agreement, despite the workers' contract having expired June 1. The union has set a strike authorization vote for Sept. 12.