Senate Bill S8682

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S8682

SPONSOR: GONZALEZ
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the executive law, in relation to deceptive practices in
spiritual or metaphysical services; and to repeal certain provisions of
the penal law relating to fortune telling

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To protect New Yorkers from deceptive or coercive practices in the
provision of spiritual, metaphysical, or divinatory services while
ensuring full protection for First Amendment speech, religious
expression, culturally rooted traditions and good-faith spiritual guid-
ance; repeals the outdated "fortune telling" offense in Penal Law §
165.35 and replaces it with a modern civil enforcement framework under
the Attorney General.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 repeats Penal Law § 165.35, the offense of "fortune telling."
              

Section 2 adds a new Executive Law § 63-e authorizing the Attorney
General to investigate and take civil action against deceptive, fraudu-
lent, or coercive practices by providers of spiritual, metaphysical, or
divinatory services.

Defines covered services (tarot, astrology, clairvoyance, mediumship,
energy work, psychic readings and similar practices).

Clarifies that the law does not regulate protected speech, religious or
cultural expression, or good-faith spiritual services.

Prohibits specific deceptive or coercive conduct, including false factu-
al claims made for financial gain, manipulative demands for payment,
threats of harm (including "supernatural harm") and misrepresentations
about professional licensure. Authorizes the Attorney General to seek
injunctions, restitution, damages, disgorgement, and civil penalties up
to $5,000 per violation.

Creates a private right of action allowing individuals to recover actual
damages or $1,000 (whichever is greater), attorneys' fees, punitive
damages and any other appropriate relief.

Section 3 contains a severability clause.

Section 4 provides that the act takes effect 90 days after becoming law
and applies prospectively.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

New York's current fortune-telling statute, Penal Law § 165.35, is a
relic of an earlier era; an era in which spiritual practices associated
with Romani families, immigrant communities, LGBTQ practitioners and
women-run microbusinesses were treated as suspect, immoral or inherently
deceptive. It was born from fear and stereotypes; not legitimate consum-
er-protection concerns. The legislative record surrounding the 1965
recodification of the Penal Law reflects these biases clearly. Fortune-
telling was deliberately retained as an offense, not because of
evidence-based consumer protection concerns, but because of longstanding
stereotypes about "occultists," "charlatans" and "gypsies." This law
stands as a remnant of 20th-century moral policing that New York has
otherwise rejected.

Although rarely enforced today, § 165.35 remains on the books as a crim-
inal ban that requires anyone offering spiritual or metaphysical
services to pre-label their speech as "entertainment only." This
compelled disclaimer treats entire belief systems as inherently fraudu-
lent and places unconventional spiritual expression outside the consti-
tutional protections afforded to other forms of speech. Courts across
the country, including in New York, have already recognized this. In
Nadel v. Weber, 1994 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Jan. 19, 1994), a New York court
held that applying the statute to punish spiritual speech without proof
of fraudulent intent violates the First Amendment.  Other states have
repealed similar laws altogether. Leaving this statute in place, despite
its acknowledged constitutional frailty, undermines public confidence in
the Penal Law and echoes the concerns that led the Legislature to repeal
New York's antiquated adultery statute.

A striking example of the statute's contradictions is Lily Dale, a
historic community in Western New York famous for mediumship, spiritual
readings, healing services and metaphysical teachings. Lily Date has
operated openly for more than a century, draws thousands of visitors
annually and is celebrated as a cultural and spiritual hub.  How can a
place like Lily Dale flourish, with events, workshops and readings at
the core of its identity, when the Penal Law declares these very prac-
tices illegal unless labeled "entertainment"? The answer is simple: the
statute is unworkable, selectively enforced and fundamentally incompat-
ible with modern constitutional and cultural reality. Its continued
existence makes you question what and who the law was ever truly meant
to target. The statute has functioned as a vehicle for selective
enforcement. Enforcement was not aimed at stopping sophisticated finan-
cial schemes; it was most often deployed to displace marginalized people
or impose moral judgments on culturally rooted practices. § 165.35 is
the wrong tool for addressing the very real problem of deceptive or
coercive schemes that sometimes occur under the guise of spiritual
services. Fraud is wrong and New York already has the appropriate laws
to address it. Larceny, false pretenses, scheme to defraud and robust
civil consumer protection statutes provide strong and targeted enforce-
ment mechanisms. Criminalizing an entire category of spiritual or meta-
physical speech goes far beyond addressing misconduct; it criminalizes
belief itself. Meanwhile, the fraud provisions that do work remain fully
available and more effective than attempting to enforce a constitu-
tionally suspect speech based crime. In 2025, Spiritual and metaphysical
services such as tarot readings, astrology, mediumship, energy work, and
spiritual counseling are widely accepted as forms of personal explora-
tion and wellness. These practices appear in mainstream bookstores,
health and wellness platforms, cultural institutions and even therapy-
adjacent settings.  New York City licenses and taxes many of these busi-
nesses. Thousands of New Yorkers lawfully provide such services every
day, yet the Penal Law continues to treat their work as criminal
"fortune telling" unless explicitly labeled "entertainment." This
contradiction serves no public purpose. It creates confusion for both
practitioners and law enforcement, who are left to guess which spiritual
speech is criminal, which is protected, and which might be treated as
fraud.  The bill replaces this outdated, discriminatory and constitu-
tionally vulnerable criminal statute with a modern consumer protection
model administered by the Attorney General. This approach focuses on
conduct like coercive acts, deceptive schemes, material misrepresen-
tations and not on the content of someone's spiritua l or metaphysical
beliefs. It preserves strong tools to intervene when vulnerable New
Yorkers are exploited, white removing a stigmatizing and unequal crimi-
nal provision that has no place in a 21st-century penal code. Repeal of
§ 165.35 is not an endorsement of fraudulent behavior. Rather, it
ensures that enforcement targets actual misconduct; not cultural identi-
ty, not immigrant traditions, not women-run businesses and not protected
speech. This bill affirms New York's commitment to constitutional
rights, cultural inclusion and modernized consumer protection, white
retiring a provision that has long stood at odds with those values.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

Minimal. Any costs associated with enforcement will be absorbed within
existing resources of the Department of Law.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect 90 days after it becomes law