What a curious sentence! It sort of rounds on itself, with since and therefore pretty much doing the same job. There’s something kind of clunky about it, in a way that is unusual for Claudius.
The deal of this wager is very curious. This Laertes having to get more points to beat Hamlet than Hamlet will have to get to beat Laertes business is very curious.
It’s like making it clear to everyone that this game has been rigged.
And it has, in fact, been rigged.
It’s been rigged to get Hamlet killed, several ways.
But the appearance is that the game is rigged for Hamlet, rather than against him.
I cannot help but think of how 45 kept proclaiming the election was rigged against him while it was, in fact, in the process of being rigged in his favor.
The Hamlet Project 