Content Warning: This article contains mentions of sexual misconduct towards a minor and child pornography that may be sensitive for certain readers.
Well-known philanthropic YouTuber James Stephen “Jimmy” Donaldson, known as MrBeast, currently faces allegations regarding the working conditions of his popular series “Beast Games,” where contestants compete in various challenges for $5 million dollars. Baking YouTuber Rosanna Pansino, known for her series “Nerdy Nummies,” posted a YouTube video on July 26 titled “The news about MrBeast ‘Beast Games’ is disturbing,” where she details such experiences of contestants. Five of the contestants are now suing Donaldson and Amazon MGM studios, the producers of the show. Pansino has continued revealing to the media about Donaldson and his actions outside his YouTube career.
In a prior MrBeast series “Creator Games”, Pansino participated in a video of one of the game competitions published on Dec. 18, 2021 titled “Extreme $1,000,000 Hide and Seek” where she later mentioned in Trisha Paytas’ Just Trish Podcast that she actually made it to the final three contestant pool, but was edited out because she implies that sexism was a contributing factor in Donaldson’s decision of the final three being all male YouTubers.
“He always in interviews says the thing about him is he keeps it real, it wasn’t real… he edited it to be all men,” said Pansino via YouTube.
Pansino now advocates for contestants who recently participated in the MrBeast series known as “Beast Games”. She shared about another contestant, who remains anonymous about her experience on the hourly and overnight mini-game challenges that the contestants competed in.
“Food would run out and people would fight over, steal… Water was scarce and kept running out… We were also sleep deprived… we all slept on the floor of the stadium in a $10 dollar sleeping bag,” said Pansino regarding the contestant’s personal experience.
Following the release of this video, Pansino continued to update viewers about other contestants’ recollection of the conditions, along with new information on Donaldson and the MrBeast company behind the “Beast Games” through a series of YouTube shorts.
“I have personally worked in entertainment and on sets for almost two decades and what is going on here is beyond disgusting and extremely dangerous,” said Pansino via YouTube.
On Sept. 26, Pansino published an in-depth continuation titled “MrBeast is a CRIMINAL (Leaked Video)” which delved into his participation in underage gambling as discussed on his personal Reddit account from when he was 19-years-old. Despite the legal gambling age being 21-years-old in the state of North Carolina where he resided, he interacted with comments expressing his irritation whenever he lost money. One comment also included the link to his Bustabit account, an online Bitcoin gambling game that is illegal in the United States. She adds that Donaldson was the top account on the Bustabit scoreboard from two different accounts and wagered 120 to 280 million dollars in 2021.
“I am inclined to believe all of the stories that I have been hearing about him pressuring his own employees to gamble… according to former MrBeast employees, MrBeast gambles on Bustabit a lot… This shows that he knows how dangerous and addictive gambling is,” said Pansino via YouTube.
Pansino believes that through his actions and inferred gambling addiction, Donaldson is fostering a negative influence on his young audience through displaying the practice of taking risks with money to either win more or lose it all. Donaldson published two videos from 2019 to 2021 where $1.1 million dollars between the two videos was spent on lottery tickets.
“Obviously he’s gambling again and I really take issue with this because his videos are targeted at children,” said Pansino via Youtube.
Prior to the release of the videos, Donaldson had previously been involved in another situation where his former best friend and colleague Ava Kris Tyson was accused of allegedly grooming a minor in July. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), a news outlet known for their coverage of events around the world, in their article “Law firm finds grooming claims against MrBeast co-host baseless” it was revealed Tyson was fired after working with Donaldson for 12 years due to the allegations.
“…I’ve seen enough online and taken immediate action to remove Ava from the company, my channel, and any association with MrBeast,” said Donaldson via X.
The allegations were dismissed even by the alleged victim themselves. However, along with Pansino’s allegations, explicit messages within a work group chat with Donaldson and his team from 2020-2021 were released.
In another video published on Oct. 26 titled “MrBeast KNEW All Along… (1,000+ Leaked Messages),” Pansino further looked into their relationship and found through an anonymous party involved with their company that child pornography had been distributed in work group chats. She emphasizes that Donaldson was aware of the media being shared and as someone with a large platform, it paints him negatively since everything occurred under his knowledge.
According to Y! Entertainment’s article “Why did Rosanna Pansino Report MrBeast to the FBI? Scandal Explained”, her investigation into MrBeast was a form of notifying the media about Donaldson’s character “behind the scenes” and overall providing insight into his full awareness of Tyson’s immoral behavior.
On Nov. 1, Donaldson posted on his X account that a three month investigation was conducted on his company and the legal team has reviewed over millions of documents and gone through 39 interviews regarding the whole situation.
“I was asked to refrain from making public statements to enable a detailed and unbiased investigation,” said Donaldson via X.
With such serious claims being made against Donaldson and the MrBeast company, it has reached the attention of many viewers via popular social media platforms like TikTok and X and was even reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) by Pansino. Junior Natalie Alvarez has been exposed to the media circulating MrBeast and feels Pansino had valid reasoning for conducting an investigation and revealing to the media his true character.
“I’m honestly not shocked… he looked too like, good to be true… how are you gonna give free stuff and like be innocent,” said Alvarez.
The ongoing investigation of Donaldson’s franchise continues to be followed by the media and remains controversial with some going against him and others supporting him.
