A game loses pounds for him! (4)
I believe the answer is:
otto
'him' is the definition.
'a game loses pounds for' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'for' could be 'to' (eg both can mean 'in the opinion of') and 'to' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ot' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for otto that I've seen before include "A man" , "German emperor" , "Something oily" , "Cooker" , "German king" .)