Desperate Housewife Hatcher Uses Gambling to Teach Daughter

Now, television star Teri Hatcher has disclosed she takes her eleven-year-old child to race tracks to learn math by gambling.

The perils of gambling exposure to youth as trumpeted by radical Christian groups doesn't fit the harmless memories many have of learning poker at family gatherings. Now, television star Teri Hatcher has disclosed she takes her eleven-year-old child to race tracks to learn math by gambling.

Hatcher, known for movie work back to "Tango and Cash" and presently one of the stars of "Desperate Housewives," says she has long been a fan of horse racing. She takes Emerson, her daughter, to racing venues to challenge her math skills with the numbers involved in horse betting.

Hatcher says the experience is a fun way to learn addition, subtraction, and multiplication.

"I do use the opportunity to make her understand math and what you're betting and what you get back... so we work on math. It's fun," says Hatcher.

While opponents of gambling are terrified that children exposed to gaming will likely become addicts, objective research has shown that those with some knowledge of wagering from childhood are actually less inclined to suffer from problem gambling.

"Like drugs and sex, forbidding any knowledge of gambling to children creates an exotic air of mystery around the subject, which becomes an enticement to explore," says sociologist Susan Antin. "De-mystifying gambling, by explaining how it works, along with mild demonstrations of the likelihood of losing, gives young people a far more solid foundation to deal with gaming temptations in the future."