Nowt Left to Lose CEO alleges examples of misappropriation of funds in RET sector  

Nowt Left to Lose CEO Ryan Pitcher has announced the imminent closure of the RET charity, following claims of abuse and “shady stuff” happening in the sector.

Pitcher registered the charity in January 2022 after leaving the utility sector but, just over a year later, is moving away from the gambling-harm space in a few weeks.

Ahead of the closure, Pitcher wrote an open letter to Gambling Commission CEO Andrew Rhodes voicing his concerns about the sector.

Pitcher detailed a toxic and abusive environment from other figures in the RET charity sector while also claiming operators do not want to deviate away from the norm of sending RET contributions to GambleAware.

Nowt Left to Lose was incorporated into the RET list in March, but the latest available funding data is from Q1 2022. In this period, GambleAware was awarded £24.2m. Only Gordon Moody and YGAM were handed six-figure donations in the same period.

In a heavily redacted letter posted on LinkedIn, Pitcher alleged a series of claims against the RET sector, including misappropriation of funds and personal attacks against himself from unnamed persons.

Pitcher said: “Much to my surprise, early doors, I was attacked and ostracised by some gambling-harm community members, seemingly for my supposed friendships with people in the gambling industry.

“One person, previously affiliated with [redacted] delivered a rally of abuse towards me, branding me a ‘f****** imbecile’, a ‘f****** d*******’, a ‘greedy little s***’, and that I was only in this space because I was ‘in it for my own sauce’.”

Pitcher added that GambleAware makes very little finances available to the rest of the sector compared to what it brings in, before going on to suggest that “two RET-listed organisations” were guilty of misappropriation of funds.

“I know of two RET-listed organisations with strong suspicions and evidence substantiating my belief that a severe misappropriation of funds has been and continues to be – [redacted] and [redacted].

“One of the common themes that I have noticed from the space is that some RET-listed organisations will fain funding for a particular project elsewhere through a third party yet notify gambling operators that this is where their donations are being spent.

“What I find genuinely abhorrent is something that I describe as ‘double-dipping’, i.e where an organisation is funded for a particular project and yet passes on the costs to the customer. I believe this has been happening at [redacted] through various conversations and insider information. Reasonably well-funded outside of RET for prevention activities, enabling them to deliver gambling-harm workshops for free, yet still charging customers anywhere between £200-£500 per session.

“I’ve been made aware of incidents in which they’ve been paid by [redacted] yet still charging schools to attend, which, given the little money and resources the education sector has spare, is just plain cruel and loathsome. Another source has informed that [redacted], [redacted] claims to have a ‘special relationship’ with the National Gambling Support Network and will help refer people for a fee of £50, despite this service being readily available and free of charge.”

Despite the damning claims, Pitcher said that there remains “many good people in [the] sector” in his closing remarks.

He added: “As I’m now drawing to a close, I wish to make it known that my views shouldn’t distract from the many good people in this sector, who go about their day-to-day wanting to make a difference and with real oomph and sincerity, often oblivious to a broader high-level game that’s being played right in front of them.

“There are others in this space who are aware of if but are happy to bite their tongue to do the work they so enjoy, and this is not a criticism of those people either.”

Nowt Left to Lose is the second RET charity in as many months to plan to shutter, following Deal Me Out’s announcement in May due to a lack of funding. The Welsh firm was saved at the 11^th-hour thanks to funding from Genting Casinos.