Haram revenue you can't see from the industry label: pork, weapons, casinos

The first step of halal screening looks simple: if a company is a bank, a casino or a brewery, it's rejected. The catch is that we learn what a company does from its industry label — and the label often hides the truth.

This article shows openly where automated screening goes "blind" and how we catch those cases by hand.

How the industry label works

The data provider gives every stock a single industry name: "Banks — Regional", "Tobacco", "Gambling" and so on. Our screener compares that name against the blocked categories list. Banking, insurance, alcohol, tobacco, gambling — rejected automatically.

But a label sums up a company's main activity in a word or two. AAOIFI's standard, by contrast, looks at activity and revenue composition. And segment revenue is almost never available ready-made in data feeds.

Pork — inside "Packaged Foods"

Our automatic rules have no "pork" industry — because the provider has none. The world's largest pork producers are filed under "Packaged Foods" or "Farm Products", just like a bread or juice maker.

Examples checked by hand and added to the list:

• Tyson Foods — pork is a separate segment;
• Hormel — SPAM and other pork products;
• Smithfield — one of the largest pork producers;
• Bridgford — pepperoni and snack meats.

The list keeps growing with smaller restaurant and food companies — sometimes the reason is a "pork" line openly printed on the menu.

Weapons — inside "Aerospace & Defense"

"Aerospace & Defense" puts two kinds of business side by side: civil aviation (aircraft parts, satellites) and weapons manufacturing. That's why we don't call the industry "haram" automatically — it is marked doubtful and waits for human review.

Those with confirmed weapons manufacturing are blocked by hand. For example:

• Lockheed Martin — a classic defense contractor;
• Boeing — most people know it for airliners, but it has a significant defense segment;
• Axon — the Taser electroshock weapon; its industry doesn't mention weapons at all;
• Olin — known as a chemicals company, but Winchester ammunition is also theirs.

Boeing and Olin are the best illustration: neither the name nor the industry says "weapons".

Casinos — even with low debt

"Resorts & Casinos" is a mixed industry: it also holds ski resorts and timeshare companies with no casino at all. Calling the whole industry "haram" would wrongly reject clean resorts. So the industry is doubtful, and actual casino operators are blocked one by one by hand.

Why does this matter? If the activity step doesn't say clearly haram, the next step is the financial ratios. Many casinos fail on debt too — but not all. Monarch Casino and Canterbury Park, for example, carry so little debt that they would pass the ratios. A casino that pays down its debt is still a casino — we rely on the fact, not on luck.

Gambling hides under other labels too:

• Take-Two — filed under "Electronic Gaming", but owns poker and slot (social casino) games through Zynga;
• Genius Sports — a sports-data company whose main customers are bookmakers.

Hidden riba: lending inside "Internet Retail"

Riba isn't only found in banks. Some large e-commerce and auto platforms run sizable lending businesses inside:

• MercadoLibre — its annual report (10-K) has a separate "credit revenues" line: interest on loans to merchants and consumers;
• Sea Limited — known for Shopee, but its Monee arm makes consumer loans;
• OPENLANE — a car auction business with interest-bearing floorplan lending to dealers.

In these cases the share is well above AAOIFI's 5% limit for impermissible income — the figures come from the companies' own filings. Interest earned on a company's own cash is a different matter — it is counted at the financial-ratio step.

Sometimes the reason is tobacco or alcohol: Casey's, for instance, is a chain of roadside stores, but its 10-K itself discloses the tobacco share.

"Doubtful" — when the share can't be measured

A precise figure isn't always available. DoorDash, for example, promotes alcohol delivery as a dedicated vertical but doesn't disclose its share of revenue. In that case we can say neither "haram" nor "halal" with confidence — the company is marked doubtful and kept off the halal list. Film and music get the same treatment: On the doubtful category.

How we find them

The manual list isn't random. The system tracks "risky" industries separately: food, restaurants, retail, hotels and resorts, gaming and media, defense, conglomerates, auto dealers and others. A stock in one of these industries goes into a manual review queue even if it passes the automatic checks. The review reads the company's annual report (10-K / 20-F) and official materials.

There are two outcomes:

• if a haram segment is found — the stock is added to the manual list and the reason is shown openly on the blocked categories page;
• if not — it is marked "reviewed, clean" with a date. If the company changes its business, that conclusion lapses and it goes back for review.

As of 3 October 2026 the manual list held 200 stocks: 84 rejected and 116 doubtful. The current count and each reason are on the blocked categories page.

Takeaways

• A company's name and industry tell you little about halal status. Boeing — airplanes, Take-Two — video games, MercadoLibre — an online store; yet each has an issue found by hand.
• When you see a stock's status, read the reason too — for manually listed stocks it's shown on the stock page.
• Statuses can change: Why does a stock's halal status change?. Even a halal company has a little impermissible income that needs purification.
• Manual review can be wrong too. If you spot hidden haram activity in a company — write to us.

Our full methodology: how we screen for halal.

This article is for information only and is not a fatwa. Consult your own scholar for a final religious ruling. Not investment advice either.