A disclosed gaming machine may be customized for game play according to one or more preferences using preference information that is not correlated to an identity of a player. In particular, it relates to methods for producing such a tampon having relatively deep, penetrating grooves in which adjacent penetrating jaws pass through the same tampon press space during manufacture and to an apparatus useful in making such a tampon as well as the tampons made therewith. The processing time is reduced by rotating the images to align the axis of the codes contained in the captured images with the rows of photo detectors in the image capture device.