There are thousands upon thousands of PokéStops scattered across the real world in Pokémon GO. Most of them are harmless landmarks: murals, statues, historic plaques, the occasional aggressively confusing piece of modern art. But every now and then, one slips through the review process that makes you wonder whether anyone was actually awake at the wheel.
This is one of those times.
https://twitter.com/Pirat_Nation/status/2020130858263326954
It has been confirmed not only that a PokéStop was located on Little Saint James — better known as Epstein Island — it has since been removed. Yes, that Little Saint James. The private island formerly owned by Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender and trafficker whose crimes made the location infamous worldwide.
To state the obvious: this should never have been approved as a point of interest in the first place.
The explanation appears to trace back to the days when Niantic ran Pokémon GO and was simultaneously operating another AR title, Ingress. Both games relied heavily on user-submitted real-world locations. At some point around 2020–2021, someone submitted Little Saint James as a point of interest in Ingress, and through a combination of user voting and algorithmic approval, it made it through the system.
Because Pokémon GO shares location data pipelines that originated from Ingress, the island quietly became a PokéStop as well. Not because anyone thought it was a good idea — but because databases talk to each other and sometimes no one double-checks what they’re saying.
Unfortunately, once players noticed, spoofers began digitally “visiting” the island in-game, causing a spike in traffic to what is arguably the most tone-deaf PokéStop imaginable. That surge finally drew attention from the current management team, which promptly deactivated it.
