The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation today clarified that its National Database of Restricted Persons or NDRP is not a list of gambling addicts but a compilation of names of people who are not allowed to gamble, such as government officials.
The state gaming regulator also said the hacked list did not come from the PAGCOR website but was likely obtained from one of its gaming licensees who have access to the NDRP so that they can screen and prevent restricted persons from gambling.
PAGCOR’s Gaming Licensing and Development Department or GLDD, which maintains the NDRP, also explained that the database is still being updated and needs more inputs from other government agencies.
Ma. Vina Claudette Oca, PAGCOR Assistant Vice President for GLDD, said the current database contains over 560,000 names only, mainly elected officials sourced from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) website.
“The names on the list are not necessarily addicted gamblers; most are government officials who, by law, are not allowed to enter gambling establishments, thus their inclusion in the NDRP,” Ms. Oca said.
“There are also 1,711 banned persons in the NDRP. These are individuals who have been subject to requests for self-exclusion, family exclusion or exclusions initiated by our licensees, but they are not necessarily addicts or government officials,” she added.
She further explained that the NDRP is far from complete since there are millions of government workers nationwide.
PAGCOR issued the clarifications after social media posts said that hackers were able to access the NDRP, and erroneously claimed that the database is a list of gambling addicts.
