NFL May Sack Roski if He Makes a Play for Pro Team

Will it be blackjack or a quarterback for Ed Roski Jr.?

The Southern California real estate mogul might have to make some tough choices--his growing Las Vegas gambling empire appears to be at odds with his campaign to bring a professional football team to Los Angeles.

Earlier this week, Roski agreed to buy the landmark Las Vegas Hilton from Park Place Entertainment Corp. for $365 million in cash, receivables and assumed debt. That’s on top of the estimated $600 million that Roski, president of Majestic Realty Co., has said he will spend on expanding his only other Las Vegas gaming property: the 300-room Silverton Hotel & Casino.

But ownership of such gambling businesses is forbidden under the rules of the National Football League. In February, Roski, part owner of the Los Angeles Kings and Lakers, told The Times that he planned to buy a minority stake in an existing NFL team and move it to the Coliseum in Exposition Park.

“It’s against league rules,” said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy. “This would be a significant issue if [Roski] pursued an NFL team.”

The NFL’s prohibition, however, has never seemed to deter Roski as he pursued his ambitions in the gambling and sports businesses. Roski, a partner in the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, has played an active role in the current and previous efforts to attract an NFL franchise to Los Angeles despite owning the Silverton Hotel & Casino since 1997.

Roski could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The Silverton is a relatively small gaming property located south of the glamorous Las Vegas Strip. It appeals to mostly local, budget-conscious players with inexpensive rooms and more than 1,100 slot machines.

But Roski has big plans for the low-key property. Last month, Roski announced the addition of 900 guest rooms and the doubling of casino space to nearly 80,000-square-feet as part of an effort to attract more out-of-town visitors, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal. In addition, the Silverton would feature a new multiscreen movie theater, restaurants and parking garage.

The expanded Silverton, however, will still pale in comparison to the massive Las Vegas Hilton. Once the world’s largest hotel, the property features nearly 3,200 rooms and 100,000 square feet of casino space. It sits adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center, which draws about 3.7 million visitors annually.

Gaming industry analyst Robin M. Farley at PaineWebber said the Las Vegas Hilton once catered to high-rollers. But the property has lost ground to glamorous new rivals--such as the Bellagio--that have risen in recent years on the Strip.

Roski has no plans to go after the high-roller market. Instead, his plans to add 1,500 rooms and remodel another 1,000 are aimed solidly at the middle market, which will complement the Silverton, said industry analysts.

The Roski properties will emerge in the wake of a turnaround in the Las Vegas gambling market, which had struggled to digest the thousands of new rooms added in recent years. The new properties are now drawing even more visitors to Las Vegas, said PaineWebber’s Farley. An estimated 34 million people visit the city annually.

“The city is attracting record numbers of people,” Farley said.