Five consumer groups have asked the FTC to write a rule about one thing, the marketing push notification a betting app sends you
The petition does not ask the Federal Trade Commission to regulate gambling.
It asks about the notification. Specifically, the marketing push notification that a wagering application sends to a phone, and whether the consumer meaningfully agreed to it, and whether they can switch it off without also switching off the messages that tell them what is happening to their account.
The Commission published notice on Monday that it has received the petition, from the National Consumers League, the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, the National Council for Problem Gambling, the Public Health Advocacy Institute and Truth in Advertising, Inc. It is filed under section 18 of the Federal Trade Commission Act and Rule 1.31(f), which puts it on the public record for 30 days and invites anyone to support or oppose it.
The Commission's own summary of what the petition requests runs to one sentence. It describes an unfair practice in the marketing of wagering applications, being the delivery of push notifications for marketing purposes without meaningful consumer consent and without an effective mechanism for consumers to stop receiving such advertising unless consumers also block essential account communications.
That last clause is the whole of it. The complaint is not the volume of advertising. It is the bundle.
The notice is careful to promise nothing. The Commission says it will not consider the petition's merits until after the comment period closes, that it may grant or deny it in whole or in part, and that it may deem the petition insufficient to warrant commencing a rulemaking at all. It adds that the document is not intended to start, stop, cancel or otherwise affect rulemaking proceedings in any way. Publication of a petition does not affect its legal status or its final disposition.
Comments are identified by docket FTC-2026-0958 and filed through regulations.gov. The file number is R607004. The 30 days run from publication in the Federal Register, which is dated July 28.
