State-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) said Tuesday that a recently hacked database, identified on social media as a list of gambling addicts, is in fact a list of individuals restricted from gambling establishments.
PAGCOR clarified that its National Database of Restricted Persons (NDRP) is a compilation of names of people, primarily government officials, who are prohibited from gambling by law.
The state gaming regulator said the hacked list was not sourced from its own website but was likely obtained from one of its licensed gaming operators who have access to the NDRP to screen patrons.
PAGCOR assistant vice president for the gaming licensing and development department (GLDD) Ma. Vina Claudette Oca said the current database contains more than 560,000 names, mostly elected officials from a list sourced from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
“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,” Oca said in a statement.
She said the database also includes 1,711 people who have been subject to self-exclusion or exclusion requests from family members or licensees.
“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 said.
The GLDD, which maintains the NDRP, said the database is still being updated and is incomplete, given the millions of government workers nationwide.
The clarification follows social media posts that claimed hackers had accessed the NDRP and wrongly labeled it as a list of gambling addicts.
, is not a list of gambling addicts. It primarily contains government officials and other individuals legally banned from gambling.){kind=link}