Well, it all depends on whether or not their only income is from "psychic" livelihood or if they have a day job, etc.
I happen to have a day job that pays rather well and as a result I tend to use much of my income to pay for my travel and other expenses to help where I am "called". However, that's just me.
You have those people that don't know how to (or choose not to) do anything but "psychic work" and they can incorporate books and other services...one lady in particluar does massage, ear candling (mine in fact), etc.
Since I don't charge where spirits are concerned -- and that seems to be the majority of my "psychic work" these days; I will need to keep the day job and later I will probably teach classes and write books in addition to the day job.
Not all psychics are good people; just like not all Catholic Priests are good people; just like not all doctors are good people...and so forth.
I had one lady who only did "psychic work" as a day job and was so greedy and hell-bent on getting money that even though she *knew* I could communicate with spirits, etc she still tried to tell me that she *had* to charge me $4,000 to get rid of some "bad/evil" spirits in my house.
You can't lable all psychics as "fake" just because there are some bad ones out there...they don't all have the same gift; so what one can do, another may not.
Also, let's say over a course of 50 years a psychic has 1,000 "premonitions" or questions from people a year (probably more); over 50 years that's 50,000 "psychic predictions"...we all know that nobody is perfect; so we'll be generous and say they are 98% accurate --- pretty good in my book.
The laws of probability state that if this is the case, they will be wrong 1,000 times in 50 years -- and we need not forget that made them right 49,000 times in 50 years. The media picks up two or three examples and you're a fraud?
While I'm not defending any psychic in particular as some people that have been named have done things I do not agree with from a moral perspective (e.g. give medical advise, etc) I do believe they have done more good than harm and perhaps we need to remember this.
As far as winning money/prizes; it just doesn't work like that...most of the time, psychics can only help other people and not take care of they're own crap "psychically"; I have a friend take care of my "stuff".