Town regulates psychics, sort of

Questioninggeller

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The following is a newspaper article from Framingham, Massachusetts:

Town still regulates psychics
By Dan McDonald/Daily News staff
Metrowestdailynews.com
Posted Feb 15, 2009 @ 12:09 AM
Last update Feb 15, 2009 @ 12:11 AM


FRAMINGHAM — Selectmen Chairman Jason Smith had just one question for Debra Freeman before his board voted to approve her fortune teller's license during the last week of January.

"So how much snow are we gong to get tomorrow?" he asked.

Freeman indicated she was not a meteorologist.

She gets that a lot.

"People come in and ask 'Where do I live? What's my name? How old am I?"' she said this past week. "I call it 'Screw with the psychic.' I don't plan to be 100 percent correct."

Freeman, who had a shop open earlier this decade, estimates she's the only one who has taken advantage of the town bylaw in the last 25 years.

This month she opened up Salem's End, a small office upstairs from the Los Compadres Mexican restaurant at 672 Waverley St.

Many deride her affinity for predictions as more phony mysticism than prophecy. However, from a business perspective, it's an apparently legitimate enough venture to still have a permitting bylaw specifically addressing the industry in 2009.

Freeman's self-proclaimed soothsaying falls under Article 5 Section 7, which dictates, "No person shall tell fortunes for money unless a license therefore has been issued by the local licensing authority," which in this case is selectmen.

And Freeman didn't even have to prove her mettle, the only prerequisite being the $50 permitting fee.

Freeman says the law exists so that hoax-peddling charlatans don't try duping people into paying $300 for a candle, then waiting for miracles to happen.

"There are people who want to take your money. People can be very vulnerable. I'm not ripping anyone off," she said.
...
Permit or not, Jakutis did not differentiate between the scams and the supposed real deal.

That a municipality would have a permit for such a service struck her as odd.

An alcohol or common victualer's license yes, but fortune telling?

"It's a racket," said Jakutis, who has lived in Framingham for 50 years. "We don't need that."
...
Click to expand...

Full article: Metrowestdailynews.com

Thoughts?
 
Interesting. In Chicago where I live, there are a lot of storefront psychics. I've been wondering what laws/regulations there are here for that, if any.
 
I like the idea of licensing psychics. If they must be allowed to operate, we might as well get some money out of them.
 
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