(with the neon palm outside)
I remember one outside Roswell NM back fifty five years ago. It took a while but the cops busted her when she tried to convince a client his money was cursed and had to be burned.
She took his money, put it in a sack, the palmed it and replaced it with fake money which she started to burn when busted.
A common fortune telling scam back then, probably still is today.
The people I met were actually Roma. I got interested after that encounter, and learned myself up on gypsies. (Some advice was not to wear jewelry if you go to see them, because they might have it off of you before you know it :-)
I think a lot of them mainly wanted to hook you on their ‘services’, and keep you coming back. I’m sure the ‘gratuity’ went up the longer you were ‘hooked’.
I’ve run into them three times - that first time, another time when friends were keeping horses at a stable they ran, and then when I went to the courthouse to apply for my marriage license. People were lined-up to get married when I was there, and one beautiful little couple who were obviously Romani were all turned out in their wedding-best - the girl looking like a wedding cake, huge veil, tiered lace and everything; boy with a huge boutonniere. Those kids didn’t look any older than a young 15, but happy as clams.
Many of them have assimilated into our culture - it’s been decades since I saw an identifiable one anywhere around here. (What we have now are signs all over advertising in Spanish ‘se lee las cartas y los manos’. The signs are posted on telephone poles at intersections...)
https://www.voanews.com/a/for-roma-life-in-us-has-challenges-119394819/163156.html