The Pokémon GO team finally removes bonus given to Jeffrey Epstein’s island years ago

After years of baffling inaction, the company that now owns the wildly popular mobile game Pokémon GO, Scopely, finally removed the highly controversial PokéStop located on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, Little Saint James. This move came following recent, extensive dumps of the nauseating Epstein files, which reignited massive public outrage. It’s honestly pretty incredible that this virtual landmark was allowed to exist for so long, especially considering the island’s horrific reputation.

For those unfamiliar with how the game works, PokéStops are critical landmarks where players can find items and catch Pokémon. Before Scopely purchased the app, Niantic owned Pokémon GO. During Niantic’s ownership, players of their various location-based games could submit their own “points of interest” using their real-world location data. These submissions would then go through an approval process to become official stops.

Sometime around 2020 or 2021, during the early years of the COVID pandemic, a user submitted a point for Little Saint James, which everyone now knows as Epstein Island. This is the island Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sexual offender and human trafficker, used to host his terrible parties before his arrest, per Fox. What’s worse, the person who submitted the stop was clearly aware of the island’s nightmare reputation. Screenshots revealed that the photo used for this point of interest came directly from drone footage taken just before Epstein died in prison. This whole situation suggests the incursion was entirely intentional.

A PokéStop was on Epstein’s island for years

The fact that this stop made it through the approval process at all is truly concerning. While some users claim that fellow players reviewed and approved these points of interest, it still managed to stick around for years, even after fans started noticing it over a year ago. This isn’t part of the blacked-out files, but it is still a weird chapter in the life of a monster who kept having visitors.

The ownership of the app changed hands in May 2025 when Scopely closed a deal to buy the app from Niantic for a massive $3.5 billion. Even after the sale, the stop remained active until the public furor over the Epstein files finally convinced Scopely to take action and pull the plug.

Many fans are left scratching their heads, wondering exactly why it took so long for Niantic and then Scopely to remove such a clearly inappropriate location. As one Redditor, u/Cute-Beyond-8133, pointed out, “That’s one hell of a ‘mistake’ to make.” They added that by 2021, everyone already knew the basics of what had happened on that island. It’s hard to argue with that logic, especially since the stop was clearly added with malice.

The controversy has sparked a broader discussion among users about what kind of locations should be allowed in the game environment. Another user on Reddit, u/LostWoodsInTheField, suggested that the Pokémon GO team should make all super controversial locations completely void from the game, specifically mentioning the homes of pedophiles. They then added a related, if slightly sarcastic, follow-up: “Unrelated question. Completely unrelated. Is there one at the white house?”

Interestingly, some users didn’t just focus on the company’s slow response. A few people actually defended the developers, suggesting that at least they finally did something about the situation, which is more than certain governing bodies have done. “And just like that, they’ve taken more action than the DOJ,” remarked u/Critical_Cat_8162.

With Scopely now holding the data, some people are wondering if they could use the stop’s usage logs to gain insight into who might have visited that awful location. One user, u/This_guy_works, asked, “Maybe we can track who was on the island by who used the pokestop?” While that sounds like a fascinating, if dark, idea, it probably won’t pan out. Unfortunately, players can easily “spoof” their location to virtually “travel” to any stop without ever stepping foot on the island itself. It seems many players did just that to access the highly notorious Epstein Island PokéStop over the years. This whole episode is a bizarre reminder of how much real-world ugliness can seep into our digital spaces.