Giving brainless <3 please help

What is the meaning of the word checking as it is used in this sentence from the second paragraph of the passage?

Read the excerpt from frederick douglass’s speech “what to the slave is the fourth of july? ” go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through south america, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, america reigns without a rival. which phrase best describes the connotation of the word “reigns”? a sense of opportunity and growth a sense of fear and anxiety a sense of compassion and humanity a sense of oppression and domination

You're playing the slots and "win" twenty-five bucks! you're stoked. during the past ten weeks, you've won another fifty bucks. but you've dropped two bucks in the slot machines every day for ten weeks