Clearwater, FL - Fortune-tellers, psychics and palm readers, listen up: Pinellas County will soon ease regulations that you’ve toiled under for years.

But you probably already knew that, didn’t you?

Since 1972, fortune-tellers in Pinellas have been regulated. The clerk of the circuit court handled the task at first, but to streamline things, the county passed an ordinance in 2000 that transferred the job of overseeing clairvoyants to the Justice and Consumer Services Department.Under the ordinance, astrologers, palm and card readers, and fortune-tellers who charge for their services are required to submit fingerprints, undergo a background check, provide photographs and pay a fee in order to get a license.

Without a license, they are barred from operating.

Since the ordinance was adopted, The Consumer Services Department has gotten few complaints about bogus or abusive fortune-tellers and has never successfully brought a case against somebody for noncompliance.

So later this month, the county plans to suspend the ordinance for two years.

“Frankly, this registration process at this point in time does not seem necessary,” said consumer services director Tim Burns.

The current licensing fee is $400, plus $30 for a background check.

Brandt DeForrest, who has been giving tarot card readings for 25 years, is one of 35 licensed fortune-tellers in Pinellas, said the fees have been much too high, and for that reason he’s glad the ordinance is going away. But he also said the county should not assume that fortune-tellers are honest, and he said that a registry makes sense.

“I do not claim to be a psychic,” said DeForrest, 43. “I make it clear to people in my booth that I do this for entertainment purposes. I don’t want them to base the next 20 years of their lives on what I say.”

Source: St Petersburg Times

This entry was posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 5:20 am and is filed under Divination, Legal Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.