“Hey kids! Let’s play a fun game called what is your moms credit card number?”

Uggh, apparently this is a well-tread genre of YouTube videos

It’s a scam going back to the 90s. It’s a big part of the reason we have COPPA.

Some of their decisions do the opposite, especially the recent limitation of five remote raid passes used per day. It used to be unlimited, and of course they have a way to purchase game coins that are then used to purchase those passes.

IMO this was more in line with their original principles over profits (that you ought to walk outside to do a raid at a gym, rather than going on Discord to get a remote invite and use a pass you purchased with pokecoins). But I find the game boring and tedious anyway.

The article suggests they make lots of money from partnerships with people like mcdonalds to bring people near to a branch by putting pokestops there. I'd guess the deal is along the lines of "we'll pay you 30 cents for each person you get to our front door".

For that to work, you don't want a few whales - you want as many hungry mcdonalds lovers as possible...