Széchenyi introduced in Hungary the gentleman’s club, an institution with which he had become familiar during his travels in England, but under the name casino borrowed from similar Italian associations. By founding the club, he wanted to stimulate public life in a broader sense, outside politics, and to attract the social and cultural elite to Pest. The Kaszino was intended as a place for sophisticated entertainment (reading, listening to music, balls) and constructive discussions.
Széchenyi established a patriotic club in Pozsony (Bratislava) during the Diet of 1825–27, which he later moved to Pest to unite the forces of progress in the capital. For the elite club, he hired the first floor of one of Pest’s most representative Danube-side palaces, the headquarters of the Board of Trade.
The club sought to bring together as many of the educated and wealthy as possible, including the most prestigious members of the bourgeoisie of Pest, as well as the aristocracy.
In the 1830s, the Pest Casino already had over five hundred members. Its activities had an impact on political and social life as a whole. Following its example, casinos were founded all over the country, which did not see entertainment as their sole aim, but rather the promotion of language and a feeling of national entity. Although Metternich’s fear that casinos would degenerate into political clubs
could be described as exaggerated, they undoubtedly played an important role in spreading liberal reformist ideas, as well as in supporting cultural initiatives of a national nature.