MLCO

Melco Resorts & Entertainment

HARAM — SCREEN DOES NOT PASSstock

Is MLCO Halal?

Casino operator — gambling (maysir) explicitly haram.

What You Should Know

Melco operates casinos and gaming resorts in Asia. Gambling (maysir) is explicitly forbidden in Islam. Not permissible. Its December 31, 2025 Form 20-F reports $7,597.688 million of assets, $6,747.918 million of interest-bearing debt, $1,023.199 million of cash, $127.292 million of receivables and $5,163.302 million of annual operating revenue. Debt/assets is 88.82%, liquidity/assets is 13.47%, receivables-plus-cash/assets is 15.14%, and disclosed interest income is 0.16% of revenue; the casino business independently fails the qualitative activity screen.

⚠️ Concerns

  • Casino gaming (maysir)
  • Entertainment with haram content
  • Very high interest-bearing debt
  • Resort gaming and concession mix

Current quantitative Sharia screen

Based on 20-F figures for the period ended 2025-12-31; calculated 2026-07-14.

USD · millions
Interest-bearing debt / assets
88.82%Above limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

6,747.918 / 7,597.688

Cash + interest-bearing securities / assets
13.47%Within limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

1,023.199 / 7,597.688

Receivables + cash / assets
15.14%Within limit
Below 50% under FTSE Yasaar

1,150.491 / 7,597.688

Non-compliant income / revenue
0.16%Within limit
No more than 5% under FTSE Yasaar

8.482 / 5,163.302

FTSE Yasaar
v4.6, February 2026
Financial
Fails
Overall
Fails

Debt/assets is 88.82%, above the 33.333% limit; liquidity/assets is 13.47%, receivables-plus-cash/assets is 15.14%, and disclosed income is 0.16% of revenue.

MSCI Islamic (total-assets series)
October 2024 methodology
Financial
Fails
Overall
Fails

Debt/assets is 88.82%, above the examined MSCI 33.33% limit; liquidity/assets is 13.47% and receivables-plus-cash/assets is 15.14%.

Malaysia SAC financial ratios
single 5% activity benchmark adopted November 2025
Financial
Fails
Overall
Fails

Debt/assets is 88.82%, above the examined 33% limit; liquidity/assets is 13.47% and receivables-plus-cash/assets is 15.14%.

Market-cap denominator methods
MSCI M-Series, S&P and Dow Jones methods differ
Financial
Not calculated
Overall
Incomplete

A properly licensed and reproducible historical market-cap series is not stored; filing-based asset ratios remain documented.

Business-activity disclosure

Melco develops and operates integrated casino resorts in Macau, the Philippines, Cyprus and Sri Lanka. Casino gaming is a prohibited activity under this qualitative assessment.

Limitation: Casino revenue of $4,247.025 million is disclosed, but the filing's other resort lines may also include gaming-linked activity; the quantified numerator is therefore a conservative minimum.

Purification

The core casino business is prohibited in this assessment; purification is not a substitute for avoiding a company whose principal activity is gambling.

Inputs, assumptions and primary sources
  • Amounts are USD millions from Melco's December 31, 2025 Form 20-F.
  • Long-term debt, net is $6,747.918 million; current portion was nil and lease liabilities are excluded.
  • Cash and cash equivalents are $1,023.199 million; restricted cash is excluded from interest-bearing securities.
  • Accounts receivable of $126.405 million plus affiliate receivables of $0.887 million are used; annual operating revenue is $5,163.302 million. Interest income is $8.482 million.
  • Casino revenue of $4,247.025 million is used as a directly disclosed prohibited-activity numerator; casino gaming is treated as prohibited (maysir) in this qualitative assessment.

This is a reproducible financial screen, not a fatwa. A failed total-assets screen can coexist with a pass under a market-cap methodology. ZakatInvest keeps the qualitative assessment separate so numerical thresholds do not erase material context.

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