Youve obviously got more time on your hands than me
This will be my last post on the topic, followed by a reply to your last email. After that Im busy

The day before the convention started, the BoD held their annual meeting in one of the convention rooms.
Messrs Sands, Smith, Satter and Rosenblum made full use of the ashtrays that were provided in the corridor.

Sometime during early Wednesday, just about the time you started pre-reg, a sign appeared at the top of the escalators and the tops of the ashtrays were removed. Too much work to remove the whole things in a hurry, so just the tops were taken out. The slot machines were also turned off.
A BoD member asked the Sales Director for clarification and was given a totally different reason to the one that came later.

Monday after the convention, I met Doug for dinner. We took a look upstairs. The sign had gone, the slot machines were back on, and the ashtrays were back.

Now had, at any point, it been explained that while no convention was actually taking place, the space was deemed to be a gaming area, I could have understood. But that was never stated in any communication.