Every month another market tightens its age-verification rules, and i keep seeing operators split two ways. Some just geoblock the strict regions and write off the traffic. Others bite the bullet and bolt on a verification provider. Neither is cheap. For the ones who verify, which provider are you on, and is the conversion hit as bad as everyone warns? And for the ones who geoblock, how much traffic are you actually giving up to stay out of it?
Most small operators i talk to geoblock first and verify later, only once a market is big enough to be worth the friction. That is usually the right order. Verification does cost you conversions, there is no way around that, but a fine for ignoring a law in a market you actively serve is a different kind of expensive. The mistake i see is treating it as all or nothing. You can geoblock the strict states or countries and keep serving everywhere else exactly as before. Not legal advice, just the pattern i keep seeing.
Funny how the same people who swore age verification would never actually happen are now shopping for providers. It was always coming. The ones who prepared quietly are fine and the ones who called it fearmongering are the ones scrambling now.