If your youth program is a member of St. Paul’s “10 Percent Club,” some big changes may be in store.

Organizations that conduct charitable gambling have long been required to give 10 percent of the proceeds to the city’s youth charities in the form of grants of up to $8,000.

At the recommendation of youth advocates, the St. Paul City Council is considering rewriting those rules, including which kinds of charities qualify as eligible.

The council on Wednesday will host a public hearing on a series of changes proposed by Council Members Rebecca Noecker and Jane Prince.

The new rules would require youth programs hoping to be added to a list of eligible charities to prove they’re geared toward serving low-income or high-minority populations.

A social mission will be key: “The organization must state how its programs and activities will work to reduce one or more areas of disparity, including but not limited to educational opportunities, employment skills, financial skills and access to mentoring for participants.”

The majority of the participants in the youth program must be residents of neighborhoods that have been identified as “Areas of Concentrated Poverty” (where at least 40 percent of households live within 185 percent of the federal poverty threshold), or residents of majority-minority neighborhoods, where at least half the population is people of color.

The maximum a youth program could receive in a calendar year would nearly double to $15,000. To be eligible, the majority of the organization’s funding must be used to benefit youth age 20 and under, at least 75 percent of whom are residents of the city.

On Wednesday, some youth sports organizers expressed confusion about whether scholarships for low-income students would meet the proposed new guidelines. Paul Nakanishi, an organizer with the Como Park Snow Sports Booster Club, noted that while his club isn’t geared toward low-income or minority populations, the grants it receives are.

“It goes specifically to low-income opportunities and it pays for ski and snowboard lessons,” Nakanishi said. “It’s for kids that can’t afford it.”