Why is shifting responsibility to someone else called "passing the buck"?

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Answer 1

"Passing the buck" (i.e. shifting responsibility) -- It was once customary in card games to pass an item called a buck, from player to player to indicate whose turn it was to deal. If a player did not wish to assume the responsibility, he would “pass the buck” to the next player. Harry Truman then coined the term, "The Buck Stops Here" -- an indicator of his sense of being unable to pass the buck any further than the Presidency of the United States.-

Answer 2

From the Oxford English Dictionary (includes examples and dates of actual use):

An article used in the game of poker; to pass the buck (see quot. 1887). U.S.

1865 Weekly New Mexican 14 July 1/3 They draw at the commissary, and at poker after they have passed the ‘buck’. 1872 ‘MARK TWAIN’ Roughing It xlvii. 332, I reckon I can't call that hand. Ante and pass the buck. 1887 J. W. KELLER Draw Poker 38 They resort to the bold and ludicrous experiment of ‘passing the buck’. The ‘buck’ is any inanimate object, usually knife or pencil, which is thrown into a jack pot and temporarily taken by the winner of the pot. Whenever the deal reaches the holder of the ‘buck’, a new jack pot must be made.
b. fig. to pass the buck (to), to shift responsibility (to another). colloq. (orig. U.S.). Hence buck-passing vbl. n.; buck-passer, one who passes the buck. the buck stops here: H. S. Truman's phrase for ‘the responsibility rests here’, i.e. the buck cannot be passed any further (see quot. 1952). orig. U.S.

1912 W. IRWIN Red Button 341 The Big Commissioner will get roasted by the papers and hand it to the Deputy Comish, and the Deputy will pass the buck down to me, and I'll have to report how it happened. 1932 E. WILSON Devil take Hindmost viii. 79 He invariably passes the buck to his subordinates. 1933 E. CUNNINGHAM Buckaroo 110 ‘Why, you lying buck-passer!’ cried Dud, indignantly. 1933 New Republic 22 Nov. 37/1 (heading) Some Expert Buck-Passing. 1952 H. S. TRUMAN Public Papers, 1952-53 (1966) 1094/2 When the decision is up before youand on my desk I have a motto which says ‘The buck stops here’the decision has to be made. 1955 A. L. ROWSE Expansion Eliz. Eng. x. 404 He [sc. Sir Francis Vere] is very good at passing the buck. 1959 Listener 15 Jan. 92/1 No one is less a buck-passer than is President de Gaulle. 1963 Times Lit. Suppl. 24 May 365/2 A human element of buck-passing and self-exculpation. 1968 A. STORR Human Aggression xii. 113 Yet a recent President of the United States found it necessary to have a reminder on his desk that ‘The buck stops here’ as if he could not quite believe in the reality of his own ultimate responsibility. 1979 Guardian 2 May 28/7 Mr Callaghan sought the sympathy of the electorate..‘The buck stops here.’

Answer 3

Passing the buck" originated from a ritual practiced during card games. Card players used to place a marker, called a "buck," in front of the person who was the dealer. That marker was passed to the next player along with the responsibility of dealing. Eventually "passing the buck" became synonymous with passing on responsibility.