Published on: February 12, 2026, 07:31h.
Updated on: February 12, 2026, 07:31h.
- Illusionist leveraged misdirection to manipulate dealers and payouts
- Convicted on 13 felony charges related to an Iowa casino incident
- Previous offenses spanned across seven states prior to his final arrest
A notorious magician known as “Shaun Mistery” has been sentenced to ten years in prison following a widespread casino cheating spree across the United States.
Shaun Joseph Benward, 38, applied the same misdirection skills from his magic performances to deceive dealers into issuing winnings that were not rightfully his. In November 2025, he was convicted of cheating the Grand Falls Casino in Larchwood, Iowa, out of $10,000 in undue payouts during a visit in December 2018. Subsequent to that event, he managed to vanish.
This elusive magician evaded capture by Iowa authorities for seven years before finally being apprehended in Mississippi last April, as reported by the Iowa Department of Public Safety.
During that time, he amassed a criminal record in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Rhode Island, and Nevada, including charges related to casino cheating, money laundering, and fraud.
In 2022, he was arrested alongside an accomplice in Pittsburgh while attempting to steal over $10K from the Rivers Casino. In this instance, Benward pleaded guilty to cheating and was sentenced to probation, along with an order to pay $10,500 in restitution.
He later violated his probation terms and had an outstanding bench warrant as of late 2025, according to court documents from Allegheny County.
Chaos Conjuror
Benward’s strategy often involved social manipulation, creating confusion, as per multiple law enforcement reports. He would engage dealers in conversation to obscure the timing of the “no more bets” call and challenged where his chips had allegedly been placed upon seeing the outcome.
At times, an accomplice would be positioned nearby to corroborate Benward’s claims and ramp up pressure, reinforcing the idea that a dealer error had taken place.
Investigators noted that he frequently modified his outfits and altered his appearance during gaming sessions to avoid detection across multiple casino visits, allowing him to return repeatedly without arousing suspicion from staff or surveillance teams.
He also sought to obscure the extent of his winnings by breaking up transactions and using different cashiers when cashing out, keeping individual sums below federal currency reporting requirements.
Thirteen Felony Charges
In 2018, Benward was charged in absentia in Lyon County, Iowa, with crimes including money laundering, gambling fraud, and conspiracy. He ultimately faced 13 felony convictions during his trial in November.
On Tuesday, Judge Carl Petersen imposed concurrent sentences totaling ten years. He will receive credit for nearly a year already served in custody.