'Pokémon Go' Finally Removed the Pokéstop on Epstein Island — But How Did It Get There?

The kid-friendly game Pokémon Go and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein are two subjects that shouldn't appear in the same sentence. Yet, here we are. Pokémon Go players found a Pokéstop on his island, Little St. James.

The Pokéstop was deleted in early February 2026, but people are wondering why it was ever allowed to exist in the first place. It's certainly inappropriate, given that the app is child-friendly and that atrocious crimes against children were committed on the notorious island.

Pokémon Go users shared screenshots of the location, which can be tied to images of a large sundial on the island observed through Google Maps drone footage. A Forbes contributor article says that the stop appears to have been added in 2020 or 2021.

Game users were perplexed as to why the Pokéstop existed for as long as it did. The same Forbes article said that the stop was noticed a year before it was finally removed in 2026. Niantic is supposed to remove stops that can't be accessed by the public. This would make Epstein's private island a no-go for the application.

Also, as of the year the stop was added, Epstein had already been convicted, so it was widely known that crimes against children had occurred on the island, making it an obviously inappropriate location for a stop in the game.

Epstein died in 2019, so if the Pokéstop was truly added in 2020 or 2021, that rules him out. A likely explanation for the stop is that it was added as a joke by a game player who "spoofed" their location on the app so that they could play as if they were on Epstein's Island. Please note that spoofing one's location is against Niantic's terms and conditions.

Once players reach level 35 in the game, they can submit a wayspot (real-life location, landmark, or object) for approval to become a Pokéstop or gym. If the wayspot is highly rated, it may make its way into the game.

A Reddit thread from 2025 jokes about playing Pokémon Go on Epstein's island by tricking the game into thinking you're there, so it's definitely possible that that's how the stop came to be.

Users posted about the Pokéstop on Reddit at least a year prior to its removal. Scopely bought Niantic in May 2025, and the stop was removed in February 2026, per the Daily Dot.

While it can't be confirmed, it's possible that Epstein played the game on the island, or at least checked it out while he was there. He referenced the game in emails released in the Epstein files.

In one email between Epstein and Deepak Chopra in 2016, Chopra talks about Pokémon Go and recommends that Epstein take a look at it, per Forbes. Epstein confirmed that he had already explored the app "with all the hoopla around it." They spoke about the future of augmented reality gaming, saying that the Pokémon Go app was one of many successful games of its kind.