As voters polled in Pennsylvania overwhelmingly oppose a casino in Gettysburg, thousands of people attend a job fair for a new Illinois casino. And Jimmy Buffet wins approval for a Margaritaville Casino in Mississippi.

A lot happened in the land-based casino world this week. In a recent public opinion poll, Pennsylvania voters vehemently turned down a proposal to build a casino in Gettysburg, site of Lincoln’s famous address, and went so far as to favor measures to prevent future proposals of the kind from being permitted. That was the grim news. On the upside, a job fair for the new Rivers Casino to open in Des Plaines, Illinois in July welcomed some 3,000 attendees and rock star Jimmy Buffet got the thumbs up for a Mississippi gulf coast casino bearing his famous Margaritaville name.

The Rivers Casino intends to hire about 1,000 new employees when it opens this summer. The crowd of 3,000 would-be hirees started lining up at 6:45 am outside Rosemont’s Donald E. Stephenson Convention Center for the casino’s job fair. Organizers said they actually expected more like 7,000 to 12,000 to show up.

Breaking ground on the Margaritaville Casino and Restaurant will likely happen in a matter of week or two on the north shore of the Back Bay in Biloxi, Mississippi. The resort will cost $48 million to build and feature 68,000 square feet of space that will include a marina, events center and retail shops. Buffet’s latest undertaking is aimed at opening in the 2012 spring.