It's no accident that Canadian jazz singer and Decca recording artist Matt Dusk appears on FOX's Monday-night reality series "The Casino" -- it's all part of the clever marketing strategy of executive producer Mark Burnett.

Thinking Dusk's music -- a blend of retro jazz and swing with a modern rock beat -- would be good marriage with his series about the efforts of Internet millionaires Tim Poster and Tom Breitling to revitalize the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas, Burnett struck a deal with Dusk and his record company, which is part of Universal Classics Group.

Burnett would feature the handsome, 25-year-old Dusk in the show -- provided that Poster and Breitling agreed to hire him -- and then Burnett would share in the profits from Dusk's debut album, "Two Shots," which was released June 15 to coincide with the show's premiere.

"When we were going to go down there," recalls Dusk, calling in from Saskatchewan, Canada, on his summer concert tour, "Burnett basically said, 'If the owners don't like you, you won't be on the show. We just can't put you in the show if they don't want you there.'

"At the end of the day, you've really got to look at the opportunity. As we all know, nothing in this world is free. It's also a good safeguard at the same time that someone's batting for you. It's a very symbiotic relationship. The music that I perform is not that radio-friendly, so you really have to find another method of delivery, and TV is an awesome way of doing that. So that's why we decided to go that way."

The title track from Dusk's album, "Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad," is also the theme song of "The Casino." While it may sound like a Rat Pack-era standard, it's of far more recent vintage. U2 frontman Bono and guitarist The Edge wrote it as an 80th-birthday present for Frank Sinatra, but the legendary singer passed away before he got to record it.

The song was released as a B-side on the CD single "If God Will Send His Angels" in Dec. 1997.

"But as we know," Dusk says, "singles in North America do absolutely nothing. So the song was officially released and became part of the Universal catalog. So a gentleman in Universal Publishing brought it to our attention and said, 'Hey, what do you think of this song?' I said, 'You've got to be joking, this song is so cool.'

"It took it a while to get where it is, but we got in on the theme song for 'The Casino' and the title track of the record."

While "The Casino" has thus far drawn a much smaller audience than tuned in to "Survivor" or "The Apprentice," in music-exposure terms, it's still a huge number of potential listeners.

In a time when it's hard for new artists who aren't Top 40 material to get noticed, Dusk is happy to have put up with a few weeks of cameras in his face and dealing with the idiosyncrasies of life at the Nugget for the chance to be heard.

"This is something that, as an advertiser," he says, "if you were to purchase this, it would cost millions of dollars. That's why, in the end, when Burnett gets a piece of the action, it works out better for everybody. It also motivates the record company to spend money on other things."

Although "The Casino" has received mixed reviews, notices for Dusk have generally been positive.

"I try to come across as best I can," he says, "knowing who I am. But you always have to wonder how they're going to edit you in. Perception is reality."

There was some talk of Dusk returning to the Nugget at the time the series came out, but since that was also his album release date, he decided to hit the road instead.

"At the same time," he says, "when we got to the Nugget back in January, their schedule was already filled up for about six to eight months in advance. I'll be back probably in two or three months at the Nugget, just after the summer here in Canada.

"We got it all figured out that way. Vegas is lovely in the winter."