Francisco (Frank) Olea

Francisco Olea is an enrolled member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe from the Pascua Pueblo reservation in Tucson, AZ, and serves as the Phoenix Region Director at the National Indian Gaming Commission. As Region Director, he is responsible for the technical assistance, training, and compliance at 56 Indian gaming facilities owned and operated by 33 federally recognized tribes located in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and southern Nevada. Olea has worked in the gaming industry since 2001, holding various supervisory and management positions with the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and the Tohono O’odham Nation in both the Tribal Gaming Office and Gaming Operations. Olea spent the summer of 2016 at the National Indian Gaming Commission’s (NIGC) Office of General Counsel in Washington, D.C., as a law student. Following that experience, Olea worked with the Pascua Yaqui Tribe’s Office of the Attorney General on a variety of legal and gaming issues before joining Casino Del Sol as a Special Services Manager in 2017. Before joining the NIGC, he worked for the Tohono O’odham Nation as a Gaming Compliance Manager.

Olea received his Bachelor of Arts from The University of Arizona, and his Juris Doctor from the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law. Olea holds several gaming industry accreditations and certifications from the University of Nevada – Las Vegas (UNLV) International Gaming Institute, San Diego State University’s Sycuan Institute of Tribal Gaming, and the National Indian Gaming Association. Olea has also recently obtained his LL.M. in Tribal Policy, Law and Government with an emphasis on Indian Gaming from Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.