The tiny neon-fronted shops nestled in city blocks from New York to Los Angeles that claim to predict the future have showed no signs of disappearing into the past.

New York state law forbids fortune telling for money (a class B misdemeanor), but allows the practice if it is considered “part of a show or exhibition solely for the purpose of entertainment or amusement.” Legal or not, it’s a thriving business. Hollywood actors, moguls, old folks and young visit these kitsch-filled shops wedged between establishments offering the more practical magic of manicures and waxing, hair styling and and lottery ticket sales.

Traditional fortune-tellers who see their clients in small storefronts or occult shops use long-established techniques: Tarot and other card reading, tea leaf reading, palmistry. The fortune-telling tradition is, in some cases, tied to the historic and still-thriving Rom (“Gypsy” to some) culture that also thrives, mostly underground, in the city: Fortune-telling is a traditional way for women to earn income. Zena of Seventh Avenue in Greenwich Village may be the best-known of the storefront psychics. Zena (a.k.a. Sylvia Mitchell) actually owns the building she works from, a rare opportunity to keep overhead low in a popular neighborhood (New York Daily Photo). Recently sued for allegedly bilking a client out of tens of thousands, no one speaks for the science or the accuracy of her craft, yet few deny the draw of having one’s future foretold and one’s nemeses identified and vanquished (via NYPost). The best wisdom might be that a standard rule of caveat emptor should apply.

Some fortune tellers don’t attempt to distance themselves from the entertainment aspect. Actor and self-described “psychic counselor” Kyler James “entertains” at cabaret-style restaurants and nightclubs like Tribeca’s Theater Bar and Les Enfants Terribles on Canal Street, where his talents are right at home amid velvet curtains, live acts and alchemical cocktails.