So, even if you win you have to give that Nilfgaardian spy half of your prize money? That is stupid...

one of the dumbest quest outcome for IMHO... Geralt appears to like being played the fool like when he was tricked to make an NPC druid talk... Shame there's no option to kill them... hehe

All Geralt does is ask her why he has to give her half, then gives it to her anyway... No wonder he is 'poor' all the time...

exactly... even if you didn't ask for the spy's help and win the tourney on your own, Geralt just let's the thief go away with his prize money. It just doesn't make any sense.

What are you talking about?
If you win, the money get stolen by the halfling and since she helps you get it back it's fair to split it 50/50.
Seems reasonable, and it's only 4,5k. You shouldn't be so stingy over such a small amount.

Hm, haven't played this quest yet as I've just barely gotten around the level of it and am still trying to finish level 19 quests before I outlevel them. But yeah, if you're the level of the high stakes quest when you do it you should have more than 10,000. I know I personally have something like 40,000

Yeah. I'm much lighter on cash, but still over 8K without issue at level 20. So many gray quests in this game now. :P