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Edited:

How would you say let's play (i.e. cards, backgammon etc.) for money as a bet? Does the sentence below make sense and sound idiomatic and natural to you:

  • Let's play on bet.

I searched it in NGram and google, but the result was almost zero. I would be grateful if you could let me know what a native speaker would say instead?

Meanwhile, I need to know how a native speaker would indicate that they tend to play / gamble on something specific such as the price of a ticket to another country of on the check of a meal (lunch, dinner...)?

A-friend
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    "Let's play on bet" is not idiomatic. "Let's play for money." – StoneyB on hiatus Mar 06 '17 at 11:39
  • @StoneyB what about if two sides decide not to play on money? E.g. they decide play on a ticket to Canary Islands for the winner or even the loser will treat the other one for a lunch etc.? – A-friend Mar 06 '17 at 11:44
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    Other useful words in such games are a wager (a bet on something) and stakes, the amount of money (or some other prize) involved. – Ronald Sole Mar 06 '17 at 11:53
  • @RonaldSole thank you very much, but as far as I'm concerned, although the word "wager" means the same, but it is considered to be a bit old-fashioned and also formal term to be used e.g. between two friends. Am I right? – A-friend Mar 06 '17 at 11:58
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    @A-friend Wager is not so much old-fashioned as a word that can be much heard in any circles (horse/dog racing, card playing, sporting events) where money is bet on the outcome of a contest. – Ronald Sole Mar 06 '17 at 12:04
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    Please don't use comments to chat. Comments are for clarification, constructive suggestions for improvement, or for minor or transient information. Any community member with 100 reputation can create a chat room to have a conversation unrelated to a particular question. @TeacherKSHuang – ColleenV Mar 06 '17 at 12:51
  • @A-friend As well as playing for money, you can bet on or wager anything at all. The players would simply agree at the start of the game that the loser would pay the costs of the winner's prize. – Ronald Sole Mar 06 '17 at 13:33
  • @RonaldSole so it would be possible to say for example: "Let's bet on tomorrow's lunch bill." OR "Let's bet on a ticket to Morocco." Am I right? – A-friend Mar 06 '17 at 14:39
  • @A-friend To bet on tomorrow's lunch bill means to bet on the total. It's not on the bill that your are betting, or on the ticket. You are betting on (the outcome of) a game/contest/horse/sport in which the person who wins or chooses the winner correctly, gets a free lunch or ticket, paid for by the loser/s. – Ronald Sole Mar 06 '17 at 18:41
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    You "bet on" a contest or event, for example, "Let's bet on whether Joe shows up on time for our meeting today". You just "bet" the money or whatever the winner of the bet will get, for example, "I bet lunch at the club that he won't show up on time." You could also say "I bet my chocolate chip cookie against your piece of cheesecake that Joe is going to be late tomorrow." (as @RonaldSole already mentioned while I was typing :) ) – ColleenV Mar 06 '17 at 18:45
  • You may want to [edit] your question to include the things we've talked about in the comments and explain that while all of it is interesting, it still doesn't really answer the question. (which we shouldn't be doing in comments anyhow! ) – ColleenV Mar 07 '17 at 15:23
  • Interesting. A 2017 comment, cautioning not to overuse comments: Please don't use comments to chat. This also came with a link to guidance that clearly states: Do not use comments for compliments which do not add new information (such as "+1, great answer!"). – J.R. Sep 04 '19 at 15:22

1 Answers1

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  1. Let's play for keeps.

This is usually used when the wager is already known in advance as "for keeps" indicates you each plan on keeping what you win.

  1. Let's play for real.

This lets the other person know that you want to play for "something that actually exists, as a particular quantity" ("Real," Definition 14, Dictionary.com.

  1. Let's play for money (as StoneyB had suggested, though you said you had wanted something that applied to things other than money).

  2. Would you care to make a wager on this? (as Ronald Sole had suggested)

  3. How about if we raise the stakes? (again, per Ronald Sole's suggestion)

These make things more real. And although you may think wager sounds old-fashioned and formal, used with the right tone of voice, I think you could use it among friends.

Teacher KSHuang
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